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THE RIGHT HONORABLE WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE 



WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE. 



A BIOGRAPHICAL STUDY. 



FRANK WAKELEY GUNSAULUS, D. D., 

PRESIDENT OP THE APwMOUR INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY. 

Author of "'Phidias." '■"Monk and Knight," "■The Tronsfigiirntion of Chrif<{," ^ • Songs i if 

Night mid Dan." Etc. 



"Vcu can not fight against tJie future. Time is on our side.'"' 

— Gladstone. 



MANUFACTURED AND SOLD BY 

MONARCH l!OOK COMPANY, 

CHICAGO, ILL. PHILADELPHIA, PA. 



FIRST COPY, 



■->'\ 







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Copyright 

By 

K. T. BOLAND. 

1898. 

ClaiiTii 
4 My '01 



""s ••• ••• ••• . t •,• ,' 



iVO COPIES RECElVfo. 



DEDICATED 

TO MY SON, 
AND 

^hc ^tttxljents jcrf Jifrnjcruv itxstitwtjc of ^ujcTxixoIog:^. 



"/«5 is better to lurite one word upon the rock^ than a 
thousand on the water or the sand: better to remove a single 
stray stone out of the path that mounts the hills of true cul- 
ture^ than to hew out miles of devious tracks^ vjhich mislead 
and bewilder us when we travel them, and 'make us more than 
content if we are fortunate enough to find, when we emerge 
out of their ivindings, that we have simply returned to the 
point in our age, from iohich, in sanguine youth, we set 
out.'''' — Gladstone, 



''''The greatest triumph of our time, a triumph in a region 
loftier than that of electricity and steam, ivill he the enthrone- 
ment of this idea of Public Bight, as the governing idea 
of European 'policy ; as the common and precious inheritance 
of all lands, hut superior to the passing opinion of any. 
The foremost among the nations will he that one, vjhich by 
its conduct shall gradually engender in the minds of the 
others a fixed belief that it is jusU . In the competition for 
this prize, the bounty of Providence has given us a place of 
vantage ; and nothing save our own fault or folly can wrest it 
from our grasp.'' ^ — Gladstone. 



PREFACE. 



Several years ago I began thinking that no career in modern poHti- 
cal Hfe abroad contained so many inspiring and excellent lessons for the 
youth and hope of America as that of William Ewart Gladstone. A 
series of lectures at the Armour Institute of Technology proved that a 
large number of people of every age and place in life were glad to hear 
the story of his life conceived and treated from an American point of 
view. These lectures have now been rewritten and many additions 
have been made to them from the large mass of material obtained dur- 
ing a visit to England which gave me an extraordinary opportunity for 
studying the great statesman and scholar. It has been a delightful task 
and I can hope for no richer reward for my labor and care than this, 
that Americans everywhere may find in reading this volume any smallest 
portion of such pleasure and interest as I have enjoyed in writing it. 

While my point of view has been different, I have not hesitated to 
consult the previously composed accounts of this wonderful life. To 
the biographies of Mr. George W. E. Russell, Mr. G. Barnet Smith 
and Mr. Justin McCarthy, I have been especially grateful for many 
things whose value I cordially acknowledge. Besides these and 
an ever-present copy of Hansard, I have to mention in the same spirit 
of thankfulness, Mr. McCarthy's "History of Our Own Times," Mr. 
Molesworth's "History of EnglarLd," and the "Nineteenth Century," 
as well as the "Edinburgh," "Contemporary" and "Fortnightly Re- 
view." I have expressed my obligations to other notable publications in 
the main body of the work. 

The great soul has passed on; .his genius, learning, eloquence, 
scholarship, humanity and piety are among the most splendid and indu- 
bitable treasures of the race. 

F. W. G. 



CONTENTS. 



Chapter 
I. 

11. 

III. 

IV. 

V. 

VI. 

VII. 

VIII. 

IX. 

X. 

XI. 

XII. 

XIII. 

XIV. 

XV. 

XVI. 

XVII. 

XVIII. 

XIX. 

XX. 

XXI, 

XXII. 

XXIII. 

XXIV. 

XXV. 

XXVI. 



Page 
Parentage and Youth 17 

School Days at Eton oq 

Christchurch College, Oxford 30 

The Oxford Student .g 

Coming to His Opportunity go 

Lord of the Treasury and Author gg 

A Great Problem in Sight g. 

* Gladstone and Sir Robert Peel gc 

The Corn Law Agitation jq2 

The Valorous Churchman m 

Oxford's Representative j2o 

The Neapolitan Outrages j^i 

Palmerston Overthrown i-^a 

After the Triumph i . I 

The Crimean War I^c 

A New Government i r2 

The Ionian Islands i eg 

Gladstone and Macaulay 161 

Gladstone's Budget of i860 168 

The Budget of 1861 177 

The American Civil War ig^ 

The Scholar and Orator , . ige^ 

Contesting for Oxford 203 

Leader of the House of Commons 213 

Gladstone and Disraeli . . . , ,.....,.<..., 220 

The Derby-Disraeli Government. ...,..,....,>,,,,. 533 



CONTENTS. 

Chapter Page 

XXVII. Disestablishment 241 

XXVIII. Triumphant Liberalism 250 

XXIX. Complications and Perils 262 

XXX. The "Alabama Claims" 265 

XXXI. Seeking Rest and Finding None 276 

XXXII. Gladstone and 'The Mystery Man" 281 

XXXIII. The Knight Errant 287 

XXXIV. The Member from Midlothian 296 

XXXV. The Irish Problem Again 305 

XXXVI. Gladstone and Bright 311 

XXXVII. Egypt and Defeat 317 

XXXVIII. Called Again to Power '. 325 

XXXIX. Tried and Faithful 333 

XL. The Aged Warrior 335 

XLI. The Grand Old Man Again in Power 348 

XLII. Gladstone the Man 355 

XLIII. At Eventide 368 

XLIV. Conclusion m 



ILLUSTRATIONS. 



Gladstone— The "Grand Old Man." 

Canning. 

Eton College. 

Christcliurch College, Oxford. 

Dining Hall, Christcliurch College, Oxford. 

Court of Oriel College, Oxford. 

Broad Walk in Gardens Christchurch College, Oxford. 

Daniel O'Connell. 

The Right Honorable William Ewart Gladstone, M. P. 

Hawarden' Castle, the Home of Gladstone. 

Robert Peel. 

Benjamin Disraeli. 

E. G. Stanley. 

Aberdeen. 

Richard Cobden. 

The Right Honorable Lord Macaulay. 

Palmerston. 

Queen Victoria. 

William E. Gladstone, English Statesman. 

Windsor Castle. 

Lord John Russell. 

Houses of Parliament. 

Throne Room, Windsor. 

Earl Derby. 

Buckingham Palace. 

Right Honorable The Marquis of Salisbury, K. G. 



ILLUSTRATIONS. 

St. James Palace. 

Cardinal Newman. 

Gladstone and Son Herbert. 

Lord Beaconsfield. 

Portrait of Gladstone — Painted by Hamilton. 

John Bright. 

Old Castle, Hawarden. 

Gladstone Delivering Famous Speech. 

Gladstone and His Friends. 

Gladstone and His Family. 

Gladstone and Li Hung Chang, 

Catherine Gladstone. 

Gladstone and Grandchild. 

Prince of Wales' Visit. 




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William Ewart Gladstone 



A BIOGRAPHICAL STUDY. 



CHAPTER I. 

PARENTAGE AND YOUTH. 

Ours has been called the century of achievements. But the nine- 
teenth century has produced nothing so great as its men and women. 
Personalities as unforgetable as time have appeared in the domain of 
art, philanthropy, religion, science, reform, literature, invention and 
commerce. It will not, however, be called a literary, a religious, or an 
artistic century, and even above its product of reformers, philanthro- 
pists and inventors, on the level of its contribution of scientists and 
princes of commerce, it will be memorable as having given to history 
four shining examples of constructive statesmanship. Into these men 
have entered its spirit and its qualities. They have incarnated especially 
its scientific method, its genius for resource, its commercial instinct, its 
faith in human brotherhood. Each of these men, — Cavour, Lincoln, 
Bismarck and Gladstone, — has been influenced after his own manner, 
either by art, religion, literature, or what we call business; and he, in 
turn, has influenced the realm which has touched his life most closely. 
But the more distinctively characteristic forces of the age which have 
been already enumerated have been the dominant energies in the soul 
and in the achievement of these men as statesmen. Each of them 
comes up out of a soil so vitalizing, and each has such intimate rela- 
tionship with the time and the place in which his career roots itself, that 
it is impossible to study the Italy of the nineteenth century successfully 
without finding its most complete and accurate presentation in the 
personality of Cavour, as Germany of the same period offers Bismarck, 
America Lincoln, and England Gladstone. 

17 



i8 GLADSTONE: A BIOGRAPHICAL STUDY. 

The task of duly portraying his personahty and making a worthy 
review of his career, must be presented in the somewhat trying light 
which he himself has flung upon such fascinating employment. Writing 
in 1876 he said: "Biographies, like painted portraits, range over an 
immense scale of value; the highest stand at a very elevated point in- 
deed; and the lowest, in which this age has been beyond all others fer- 
tile, descend far below zero. Human nature is in itself a thing so won- 
derful, so greatly paramount among all the objects offered to our knowl- 
edge, that there are few pieces or specimens of it which do not deserve 
and reward observation. But then they must be true, and must breathe 
the breath of life; they must give us, not the mere clothes, or grave- 
clothes, of the man, but the man himself. For this reason it is that auto- 
biographies (unless when a distinguished man is unfortunately tempted, 
as appears to have been the case with Lord Brougham, to write his own 
life from old newspapers) are commonly of real interest ; for every man 
does his best to make his own portrait a likeness." 

Now, the fact is that Mr. Gladstone has written his autobiography 
In the changed condition of human life in England, in a multitude of 
excellent essays and in some of the most brilliant and statesmanlike 
orations in the English language, all of which give to the duty of 
the biographer a peculiar tendency. The living figure abides. Any 
description of our time finds him a present force, and his eloquence 
flows forth, resistless and splendid as in other days. He was statesman, 
orator, and man of letters, expositor of Homer, polemic and theologian, 
connoisseur of art, critic of poets and philosophers, fast and genial 
friend, noble husband, wise and tender father, and, above all, "the grand 
old man" of Anglo-Saxon civilization. But a man's vitality for any 
length of time depends upon his spiritual attitude and the vision in 
which he has seen things. Gladstone was and is all these men in one, be- 
cause of the perennial quality of his ideals. 

He is the more interesting to Americans because he comes from the 
central heart, the genetic current of modern political life. The origins of 
his career lie and move with the great mass of people known in England 
as the "middle class." Much has been said about this portion of the body 
politic in explanation of the fact that Gladstone began his career as a 



PARENTAGE AND YOUTH. 19 

Tory and ended it as a Liberal. If it is meant by this that the middle 
class, having no titles to protect or venerable symbols to maintain, finds 
itself allied with a sort of Toryism easily transformed into Liberalism, an 
entirely wrong impression is conveyed, for this is not the truth about the 
Toi-yism of such people as Sir John Gladstone. When you get a Tory 
who finds himself born, where, with one hand he touches the aristocracy 
with his genius, and with the other hand, he touches the plebeian 
elements of society with his common clay, his Toryism is almost sure 
to be as fantastic and bumptious as it is uncertain of its respectability. 
The very circumstances of Mr. Gladstone's birth, uniting him to an 
element which has had so much to do with the progress of England 
in commerce, literature, art, and morals, would have furnished a less 
virile and clear-headed man with a reason for courting, throughout his 
whole life, aristocracies and royal families. It is usually the man who 
having been born in circumstances where the common things of life 
touch him most closely, lifted by genius into the neighborhood of the 
uncommon things, finds himself forgetful of any duties which he owes 
to those who still remain in the ordinary walks of life. True, the greatest 
defenders of individual and national freedom, the souls least vanquished 
by pretentious nobility and bejeweled royalty, as well as the wise 
defenders of England's constitution against a noisy lawlessness which 
calls itself by the sacred name of democracy, have sprung from this 
class. But, given such wealth and culture and associations as came to 
Gladstone, it must be regarded as the triumph of a truth-seeking nature 
over circumstances and prejudices, rather than force of prejudice and 
sovereignty of circumstances which lifted him into such a position in 
the statesmanship of our time as makes him worthy of association with 
the great masters of statecraft in all time. 

Sir John Gladstone was simply an industrious, level-headed, clear- 
eyed man of afifairs. He set his very life-current in the blood of his son 
William. Whenever in his future life William Ewart Gladstone stood in 
the House of Commons and made a financial Budget more interesting 
than the novel of his great rival, Disraeli, there was allied in him, with 
the scholar and the orator, the old dealer in grain at Leith, near Edin- 
burgh, who had conveyed from generation to generation his superlative 



20 GLADSTONE: A BIOGRAPHICAL STUDY. 

energy, as well as his clear and comprehensive philosophy as to how 
property is to be obtained and how property is to be kept after it is 
obtained. One of Sir John Gladstone's friends once heard Gladstone 
the younger talk for a half hour on Homer, and then drop into a dis- 
course upon the tax on annuities. "There," said he, "I hear the Lan- 
cashire grain merchant, even if he has learned Greek poetry." 

Sir John furnished his son with a passion for work and a grave con- 
viction that life has few topics upon which the liveliest and most truly 
equipped intellect may not wisely spend all its powers. A purpose, 
tenacious as his mind was practical and intense, served to gather to itself 
all that this home furnished of delightful intercourse, high ideals and 
quick intelligence and consolidate it in this son for future service to 
the theories dear to the father. Mercantile pursuits did not overcloud 
the sky of the young book-lover; but the youth dreamed in the atmo'S- 
phere of trade. That the son was manfully proud of so worthy, if com- 
mercial, an origin, is evidenced by a speech delivered in Liverpool, in 
1872, in which he said: 'T know not why commerce in England should 
not have its old families, rejoicing to be connected with commerce from 
generation to generation. It has been so in other countries; I trust it 
will be so in this country. I think it is a subject of sorrow, almost of 
scandal, when those families who have either acquired or recovered sta- 
tion and wealth through commerce, turn their backs upon it, and seem 
to be ashamed of it. It certainly is not so with my brothers or with me." 

It is scarcely necessary for us to dwell upon the fact that the Glad- 
stone family is of great antiquity, and that they were once called Gled- 
stanes, — a lowland Scotch word "gled," which signifies hawk, and 
another word, "stane," meaning rock, uniting and forming a name long 
borne by a family, which, thanks to the immense services of its late 
representative, need care little whether or not Herbert de Gledstane, 
who seems to have been one of the Lairds who made oath of his loyalty 
to Edward the First, was really the ancestor of the orator and statesman 
whom we are now studying. Certain it seems that early in the sixteenth 
century a branch of the family settled in Clydesdale, and from it the 
subject of this biographical study sprang. 

Gladstone's mother has scarcely figured in the accounts of his life, 



PARENTAGE AND YOUTH. 21 

and, indeed, such a man as Sir John Gladstone was not Hkely to permit 
her to occupy any too dominant place in his own biography or in the 
customary chronicle of his son's career. The truth is, however, that 
Annie Robertson, who was Sir John Gladstone's second wife, imparted 
to her son William the very rare and delicate quality which expressed 
itself throughout his career in his love of art, his appreciation of the 
finest forms in which the literary spirit enshrines itself, and his musical 
sense, which is apparent in him not only as the young tenor singer in 
the Liverpool home, but also in that sonorous rhythm which abounds 
throughout his speeches. Gladstone's mother came from the ancient 
Donachie clan, and, besides the contributions mentioned above, there 
is little doubt that she contributed also to her boy a certain speculative 
tendency of mind which has helped him, oftentimes, to poise in the 
atmosphere above a subject so long as to enable him to know where 
truth and conscience should bid him to light. 

In the home of these two, — John Gladstone and Annie Robertson — 
William Ewart Gladstone, the fourth son, was born December 29th, 
1809. 

Mr. Gladstone has been described as a man who was quite unable 
to keep his seat in the House of Commons or elsewhere when any sub- 
ject was up for debate, upon which he knew more than anyone else 
speaking on the topic. Punch has contained many a lively picture of 
''the grand old man" vainly seeking to repress what one of the liveliest 
of our essayists calls his "passion for argumentation," The home of 
Gladstone's childhood was a school of controversy, in which he was 
trained as if he were to spend his whole life, and its destinies were to 
be decided, in a hall of debate. The House of Commons does not 
ordinarily furnish a man opportunity for constant contention. Human 
nature is commonly granted too brief a career, and the human body has 
usually too fragile a constitution to permit of incessant argumentation 
for any length of time. But Sir John Gladstone's house was a veritable 
gymnasium for William, and his health and length of life were such that 
he never needed to get over the habits of his childhood. It was a Scotch 
home in England, — and it must always be remembered that Gladstone 
is a Scotchman, with the ardor and habit of controversy which belongs 



22 GLADSTONE: A BIOGRAPHICAL STUDY. 

to the Scotchman, supplemented by true Scotch "cannmess," and 
Scotch love of truth. This home, with its continuous disputation, gave 
Gladstone's inherited Toryism, — for his father made Toryism a part of 
his religion, — glorious and sympathetic opportunity to literally attain 
its highest possible growth, or — and it is sometimes suspected that this 
was the case — to wear itself out in talk and discussion, so that soon he 
should prove that Toryism is not as essential to a Scotch mind broad- 
ening through England toward a cosmopolitan spirit as is either truth, 
liberty, or that which is still more important to a Scotchman, — religion. 
One of Gladstone's earlier biographers tells us that — 

"Nothing was ever taken for granted between the father and his sons. 
A succession of arguments on great topics and small topics alike — argu- 
ments conducted with perfect good humor, but also with the most im- 
placable logic — formed the staple of the family conversations. The children 
and their parents argued upon everything, * * * They would debate 
as to whether the trout should be boiled or broiled, whether a window 
should be opened, and whether it was like to be fine or not the next day. It 
was all perfectly good humored, but curious to a stranger because of the 
evident care which all the disputants took to advance no proposition, even as 
to the prospect of rain, rashly.'' 

This state of things in his childhood will account for the gravity of 
Mr. Gladstone's behavior when he dealt with subjects small in propor- 
tion to other themes occupying the attention of his eager spirit. Glad- 
stone's sense of humor has never furnished him with that perspective in 
which alone small things are seen in their proper relationship to great 
things. John Bright's humor would have saved him oftentimes from 
furnishing to the world a picture like that in which a steel-clad man- 
of-war is seen opening it batteries against an argosy of dories. Even 
in his childhood home, the humor of the situation did not always im- 
press him. 

As he advanced in life, William E. Gladstone grew younger with 
each year, and not only allowed the circumstances of his own career to 
be illumined by the gayeties of wit and humor, but he took an almost 
marvelous interest — if any interest may be called marvelous in his won- 
derful life — in irradiating the paths of steady thinkers and the ways pur- 



PARENTAGE AND YOUTH. 



^o 



sued by overworked enthusiasts with a delicate humor and sparkling 
wit unknown to his friends in youth or even middle age. The fountains 
of humor which lay concealed in this profound and serious spirit often- 
times bubbled forth in unexpected places in his argument. There is 
always a certain intensity of conviction shining through the brilliant 
sayings, but the humor is so true and fresh and pure that the prismatic 
colors of his many-sided nature appear nowhere at better advantage. 

Toryism in the home of Sir John Gladstone was what it often is, — 
a habit of mind. Von Biilow has spoken of the tenor voice as a disease, 
and to a progressive spirit such Toryism as that in which William Glad- 
stone found himself growing from youth to manhood, and for which the 
whole family ran in races of argument, each unconsciously training 
WilHam Gladstone in fluency of utterance and dialectical skill, must 
ever appear well-nigh a disease. This study of Gladstone seeks so to 
present his career that we may see how nobly the young Scotchman, 
even though oftentimes the victim of his Scotch "canniness," yet always 
the servitor and apostle of his Scotch religiousness, possessing the 
Scotch passion for controversy and the Scotch subtlety and ardor of 
speculation, got over this disease, as one may say. He got so well over 
it, that his immense industry, the splendor and richness of his oratorical 
gifts, the unyielding devotion of his mind to truth, his scholarship and 
research, his sincere attachment to all large conceptions of liberty and 
law, were at length converged and embodied in a forceful figure offering 
vast encouragement to that Americanism which is so vitally related to 
the English constitution whose expositor he was. Even more, Glad- 
stone gives to all men a deeper confidence in the value and supremacy 
of the ideas whose champion and defender he became. 

It is ennobling to believe that the human mind is open to truth, 
and it is an inspiring confidence that truth has a power in itself to mold 
and to lead the human mind. The cynic in politics, the pessimist in 
social reform can never have faith in these propositions. The ideas for 
w'hich America exists as an experiment in human government have 
proved their native power to rule, in the fact that upon such a man as 
Gladstone, born and trained, as we have seen, in the very atmosphere 
of Toryism, they at last gained a supremacy and lifted him into a leader- 



24 GLADSTONE: A BIOGRAPHICAL STUDY. 

ship of the forces of human progress which no Toryism can ever afit'ord 
to any finest intellect. 

No doubt the mind of Mr. Gladstone was so responsive to every 
influence from without and to every conviction from within, that he 
has furnished a good deal of evidence that human nature at its highest 
and best is likely to miss what our wisdom — superior because it comes 
afterward — calls the straight course. He affords to a cursory view 
the testimony, that in politics, the shortest distance between two points 
is not invariably a straight line. Burke Avas often quoted by his suc- 
cessor to this effect: "All government is founded upon compromise 
and barter. But in all fair dealing the thing bought must bear some 
proportion to the purchase paid. None will barter away the immediate 
■jewel of the soul." There Gladstone has taken his stand. Knowing 
when the jewel of the soul was asked for, he has been quick to turn 
about and refuse its transfer. He has dared to be inconsistent. 

Mr. Gladstone's superiority of intelligence and masterful learning 
•have made him all the 'more eminent as an example of the ease with 
which an imaginative mind finds that logic is something else than a 
necessity of the soul, or the bread of life. It is a long journey from 
Toryism to Liberalism in anything, — for Toryism is not so much a set 
of views taken and easily looked at, as it is a point of view from which 
only certain views may be taken. A good deal might be said with refer- 
ence to Mr. Gladstone and the quality of his mind and the sincerity of 
his life, by comparison of Gladstone the statesman with Gladstone the 
theologian. Mr, Gladstone has always wished to be a Conservative of 
the best sort, — that is to be a preserver of the good, to hold to the truth 
and the institutions in whose forms truth binds the past to the future. 
But he was inconvenienced by possessing a daring intellect, or rather 
it possessed him. He has seemed to speculate in statesmanship, and 
at the very hour when he had gone short in the market on Conservatism 
in one direction, he has hedged, so to speak, in the other, and freed him- 
self of all Liberalism in theology. Within a week after he made Eng- 
land feel that in politics, to use a word of Emerson's, "all things are 
at a risk," he issued a pamphlet in championship of some ven- 
erable view of Scripture interpretation, over which the good-natured 



PARENTAGE AND YOUTH. 25 

Englishman, weary of the peril of thinking, approvingly shrugged his 
shoulders while he drained his glass of port and caressed his copy a"" 
Butler's Analogy, saying to himself meanwhile: "Well, everything in the 
Church at least is secure, and it will be, just as it was in the time of the 
Bishop of Durham, if Gladstone only has his way." 

This is not the place, even if there be any in this volume, to treat 
of Gladstone's theological and ecclesiastical excursions, but any study 
of the subject in comparison with his career as a politician, would simply 
throw into relief the ideas already expressed. The distance between 
Toryism and Liberalism in any realm of life, — having consented to the 
fact that Toryism is a habit of mind, rather than a set of opinions — is 
so great, and the rocks and shoals and currents are so numerous, the 
vacant spaces where motion seems to fail and where the ship is sure to 
be becalmed, are also so many, there is such necessity for taking advan- 
tage of this breath of air or the fringe of that gale or the edge of this 
tempest, that any worthy sailor, especially when he has a crew on board, 
all of whom have the liberty to give orders, granted by a constitutional 
government, and all of whom have to be at least consulted whenever 
their opinions are of the least possible value, must be allowed to tack 
ship. Mr. Gladstone has often tacked ship, to the everlasting embarrass- 
ment of his friends and to the horror of his foes, but his life and its 
achievements prove that, in spite of all these difficulties hitherto men- 
tioned, and, indeed, while supremely conquering them, he has always 
known where he was going, and he has signally triumphed in arriving- 
there. 

Mr. Gladstone's journey from Toryism to Liberalism pulled every 
heartstring which united him to his home, and yet it is astonishing 
that he drew after him, by might of his own convictions and the in- 
fluence of his progressive eloquence, many who seemed hopelessly 
involved with the antiquities and prejudices of the Tory position. 
Disraeli, at a later time, with that sneer which traversed often across 
the delicate and sensitive nerves which bound Gladstone to his past, 
taunted him with regard to his departure from parental dogmas, and 
Gladstone swiftly and honorably acknowledged the nature of his former 
position in these words: "I was bred under the shadow of the great 



26 GLADSTONE: A BIOGRAPHICAL STUDY. 

name of Canning; every influence connected with that great name gov- 
erned the poHtics of my childhood and of my youth," 

The school-boy days passed in the genial and lovely environment 
of the Vicarage of Seaforth. Here the boy sported and dreamed and 
became acquainted with the literatures of the leading nations of the 
world. 

In the "Life and Letters of Dean Stanley" (Charles Scribner's Sons, 
N. Y.), we are told some things about Seaforth, which is described as: 
"then a quiet seaside hamlet at the mouth of the Mersey, now trans- 
formed into a populous suburb of Liverpool." The school was cared for 
by the incumbent of the church near Seaforth. 

In a note, we are informed that "the name Seaforth, as denoting 
a locality in the neighborhood of Liverpool, demands a word of explana- 
tion. It was borrowed, early in the present century, for his house, and 
the surrounding land, at that time entirely uninhabited, by the elder 
Mr. Gladstone, from the title of Lord Seaforth, the head of the Macken- 
zies, the family to which his mother belonged." 

The biography further says: "Among the very first letters is one 
of November, 1824, to his mother, recounting a visit to Mr. Gladstone's, 
describing fully the stuffed animals which he saw there, and, after tell- 
ing her that he 'has quite finished As in Prsesenti,' adding, 'there is an 
Illiad (sic) here which I like very much, for it is all about the gods and 
the Grecians and Trojans.' From that time the current flows home- 
ward unceasingly, though he often deprecates his sister Mary's re- 
proaches. 'You know I am always a shocking letter-writer. Sometimes 
I am in a humor for writing, and sometimes not.' 'No such things hap- 
pen at school as at home.' A day's visit to Liverpool is welcomed be- 
cause it 'gives him something to write about,' but in the main the facile 
pen of the future is already there in germ. 

" 'He is grown,' his mother writes in December, 1824, on his first 
return home, 'and his hands feel more substantial. The report of him 
is that he is as rough as the other boys when with them, but of this there 
is no symptom. The shyness, coloring, reserve and susceptibility seem 
to be rather increased.' But his lips were clearly unlocked tow^ards his 
schoolfellows. Southey had been, and still was, his favorite poet. 'We 



PARENTAGE AND YOUTH. 27 

have great fun,' he writes to Mrs. Stanley in February, 1825, 'play- 
ing at "Thalaba and Kehama." I am Khawla and Handfield is Mo- 
hareb, and I tell them stories at night.' Canon Rawstorne, his school- 
fellow at Seaforth, and afterwards his fag at Rugby, remembers 'his 
remarkable gift as a raconteur, and his relating to a group of boys in 
a corner of the sand hills a great part of the story of "Kenilworth," 
especially that part about Wayland Smith. I think all his stories were 
recollections from books, for he was never very great at invention.' 

"He has been taken to Liverpool, and writes, in a letter to his sister, 
that he has 'seen a giant, who said he had been in Bonaparte's army;' 
and again, 'I have seen "Waverly" acted, and liked it very much;' and 
there is a graphic account on November 12, which assumes larger pro- 
portions in each successive year, of the bonfire and fireworks on the 5th 
of November. 'One of the boys had bought a very tall Pope for the 
bonfire, and a Guy Fawkes, . . . Mr. Gladstone gave the wood, 
and we had tar barrels, and it was great fun.' But his heart was more 
in his books than in his play, and with each half-year the literary in- 
stinct becomes more developed. 'How do you like "Madoc"?' he asks 
his sister; 'not so much as "Roderic," I am sure.' " 

So much is reprinted as showing Gladstone's early environment, for 
he was Stanley's fellow pupil under Mr. Rawson. 

From a letter of Stanley's, June 26, we reproduce the following: 
"How delightful — how enchanting — how charming! How much better 
than Rouen is this, so far away, so nice to have Auntie and Lucy, so 
romantic to ride over the mountains on mules, through verdant valleys 
and snow-capped hills! And the Spaniards, too, and the Cagots — I 
must get benighted and go to a 'Cagot's' hut. . . . William Glad- 
stone is at home now, and last Tuesday I and one of the other boys 
were invited to breakfast with him; so we went, had breakfast in grand 
style, went into the garden and devoured strawberries, which were 
there in great abundance, unchained the great Newfoundland, and 
swam him in the pond; we walked about the garden, went into the 
house and saw beautiful pictures of Shakespeare's plays, and came 
away at twelve o'clock. It was very good fun, and I don't think I was 
very shy, for I talked to William Gladstone almost all the time about 



28 GLADSTONE: A BIOGRAPHICAL STUDY. 

all sorts of things. He was so very good-natured, and I like him very 
much. He talked a great deal about Eton, and said it was a very good 
place for those who liked boating and Latin verses. I think from what 
he said, I might get to like it. . . . He was very good-natured 
to us all the time, and lent me books to read when we went away, 'The 
Etonian,' etc. . . . Oh! how soon — next Tuesday week, and then 
the sea, the Pyrenees!" 

Gladstone did not look back upon his Eton days as days in which 
his religious sensibilities had their best environment. In his famous 
"Chapter of Autobiography" he referred to the churches of that time: 
"That time was a time such as comes after sickness, to a man 
in the flower of life, with an unimpaired and buoyant constitution; the 
time in which, though health is as yet incomplete, the sense and the 
joy of health are keener, as the fresh and living current firs«t flows in, 
than are conveyed by its even and undisturbed possession. 

"The Church of England had been passing through a long period 
of deep and chronic religious lethargy. For many years, perhaps for 
some generations, Christendom might have been challenged to show, 
either then or from any former age, a clergy (with exception) so secular 
and lax, or congregations so .cold, irreverent, and indevout. The pro- 
cess of awakening had, indeed, begun many years before; but a very 
long time is required to stir up effectually a torpid body, whose dimen- 
sions overspread a great country. Active piety and zeal among the 
clergy, and yet more among the laity, had been in a great degree con- 
fined within the narrow limits of a party, which, however meritorious in 
its work, presented in the main phenomena of transition, and laid but 
little hold on the higher intellect and cultivation of the country. 

"Our churches and our worship bore in general too conclusive testi- 
mony to a frozen indifference. No effort had been made either to over- 
take the religious destitution of the multitudes at home, or to follow 
the numerous children of the church, migrating into distant lands, 
with any due provision for their spiritual wants. The richer benefices 
were very commonly regarded as a suitable provision for such mem- 
bers of the higher families, as were least fit to push their way In any 
profession requiring thought or labor. The abuses of plurality and 



PARENTAGE AND YOUTH. 29 

non-residence were at a height, which, if not proved by statistical 
returns, it would now be scarcely possible to believe. At Eton, the 
greatest public school of the country (and I presume it tnay be taken 
as a sample of the rest), the actual teaching of Christianity was all but 
dead, though happily none of its forms had been surrendered. It is a 
retrospect full of gloom; and with all our Romanizing, and all our 
Rationalizing, what man of sense would wish to go back upon those 
dreary times: 

" 'Domos Ditis vacuas, et inania regna?' " 

Later in life he said he would think better of Eton if Homer had been 
studied there. 

As an old man, in March, 1891, he gave another picture of Eton, 
or one from another point of view. He said to the Eton students: 

"When I was a boy I cared nothing at all about the Homeric gods. 
I did not enter into the subject until thirty or forty years afterwards, 
when, in a conversation with Dr. Pusey, who, like me, had been an Eton 
boy, he told me, having more sense and brains than I had, that he took 
the deepest interest and had the greatest curiosity about these Homeric 
gods. They are of the greatest interest, and you cannot really study 
the text of Homer without gathering fruits; and the more you study 
him the more you will be astonished at the multitude of lessons and 
the completeness of the picture which he gives you. There is a perfect 
encyclopaedia of human character and human experience in the poems of 
Homer, more complete in every detail than is elsewhere furnished to us 
of Achaian life." 



CHAPTER II. 
SCHOOL DAYS AT ETON. 

Mr. Gladstone has always appeared with such attractions and 
graces adding their charm to his figure and the influence diffusing from 
his physical presence, that one can readily believe what Sir Francis 
Murchison says, that "he was the prettiest boy that ever went to Eton." 
He was eleven years of age at this time. No one at Eton, except that 
embodiment of "spiritual splendor" known as Arthur Henry Hallam, 
furnished such a fascinating picture of childhood, docile, happy, inno- 
cent, graceful and promising, opening its treasure-house of possibility 
to the influences of culture and yielding to the forces of literature and 
science and the guidance of such teachers as then made Eton the most 
desirable place for such a youth. Gladstone's spirit was even then lofty 
and sovereign over his companions. Bishop Hamilton of Salisbury 
is not the only prelate, statesman, or man of letters who has left a state- 
ment of his gratitude that Providence gave to his young life the pure 
and uplifting influence of William Ewart Gladstone. Arthur Henry 
Hallam, whom Tennyson's poetry has enshrined with scarcely more of 
richness than the less musical prose of Mr. Gladstone, writes of his com- 
panion and friend: "... Whatever may be our lot, I am con- 
vinced that he is a bud that will bloom with a richer fragrance than 
almost any other whose early promise I have witnessed." This state- 
ment must be taken, however, in full view of the fact that there were 
other men, either students or teachers, at Eton, who were attracted by 
Hallam's genius, who also believed that he, and not Gladstone, would be 
the great man of England. 

The almost unmatched laborlousness of later days was prophesied 
in the scholarly habits and zeal of the Eton pupil at this time. In the 
holidays he studied mathematics and read poetry. He wandered Into 
the regions which history makes easy of access, and he put behind his 

30 



SCHOOL DAYS AT ETON. 31 

active career the vast and illuminative background of the countless years 
and processes along which man had come to the problems which he was 
to confront as an English statesman. No wonder that in i860, as the 
officer of the University of Edinburgh, he could address the multitude 
of expectant and ardent students in these sentences: 

"The mountain-tops of Scotland behold on every side of them the wit- 
ness, and many a one, of what were once her morasses and her moorlands, 
now blossoming as the rose, carries on its face the proof of how truly it is 
in man and not in his circumstances that the secret of his destiny resides. 
For most of you that destiny will take its final bent towards evil or towards 
good, not from the information you imbibe, but from the habits of thought, 
mind and life that you shall acquire, during your academical career. Could 
you with the bodily eye watch the moments of it as they fly, you would see 
them all pass you, as the bee that has rifled the heather bears its honey 
through the air, charged with the promise^ or it may be the menace, of the 
future. In many things it is wise to believe before experience; to believe, 
until you may know; and believe me when I tell you that the thrift of time 
will repay you in after life with an usury of profit beyond your most san- 
guine dreams, and that the waste of it will make you dwindle alike in in- 
tellectual and in moral stature, beneath your darkest reckoning." 

Yet Gladstone was no saint, or ascetic, or scholarly recluse wasting 
fiber and blood in unwise pursuit even of the truths of science and math- 
ematics. He w^as always a great walker, easily able to tire out three or 
four other men in the course of a day, while he talked incessantly either 
of poetry, art, old china, religion, or politics. This habit began with 
him at Eton, where he constantly exercised his body by rowing, and 
prepared his physical nature to endure the terrible strain of the stormful 
years to come. His contentiousness was easily excited, and there can 
be little doubt that Gladstone was willing to take care of himself in 
an affair involving the use of his fists rather than the exercise of his 
powers of thought. His manly courage expressed itself in his modera- 
tion, and at one time he made stern refusal to drink the customary toast 
at an anniversary dinner. He challenged a bully with the same eager- 
ness, and handled him with the same skill and strength as many another 
youth has done who had nothing of Gladstone's hope of future great- 
ness. But the literary and eloquent man is so often a physical coward 



32 GLADSTONE: A BIOGRAPHICAL STUDY. 

that it is fair to state here that Mr. Gladstone has never failed when it 
was necessary or advisable to enter any kind of conflict. As a boy at 
Eton or at Oxford he was in the habit of obeying Sir Philip Sidney's, 
word, and if he heard of a good fight, he went to it and did his part. 

There were no prizes for Gladstone at Eton. He read a great deal 
outside of the prescribed books, and made himself familiar with those 
pages of English poetry from which he quoted all his life. It was natural 
that this should stir a verse-writing tendency in his own rhythmic 
nature, and he produced verses of such excellence that he was "visited 
with honor. A literary career seemed to be most attractive to him at this 
time. It is his mind which most of all guides and enriches the "Eton 
Miscellany." The calmness and literary poise of his work here are 
equaled only by its brilliant promise. Somewhat too majestic are his 
early utterances, but the fact is that a man who is not very lofty or very 
florid in his youth, is not likely to be either high or even interesting in 
his old age. The closing passage of his introduction has humor: 

"I was surprised to see some works with the names of Shakespeare 
and Milton on them sharing the common destiny; but on examination 
I found that those of the latter were some political rhapsodies which 
richly deserved their fate; and that the former consisted of some edi- 
tions of his works which had been burdened with notes and mangled 
with emendations by his merciless commentators. In other places I 
perceived authors worked up into a frenzy by seeing their own com- 
positions descending like the rest. Often did the infuriated scribes 
extend their hands, and make a plunge to endeavor to save their be- 
loved offspring, but in vain. I pitied the anguish of their disappoint- 
ment, but with feelings of the same commiseration as that which one 
feels for a malefactor on beholding his death, being at the same time 
fully conscious how well he deserved it." 

He rendered a chorus of the "Hecuba of Euripides," and it is in- 
stinct with the spirit of the original. The sense of humor which came to 
be a redeeming feature in many of the stormful times of his later life, 
which was never as large and spontaneous as it might have been, ex- 
pressed itself in his "Views of Lethe," which was one of his many con- 
tributions to the "Eton Miscellany:" 




Q 

a: 
O 

tu 
X 

o 

o 
w 

o 

U 
H 

2 
p: 
u 

I 
►J 

< 

o 

z 

z 
5 



SCHOOL DAYS AT ETON. 33 

"In my present undertaking there is one gulf in which I fear to 
sink, and that gulf is Lethe. There is one stream which I dread my in- 
ability to stem; it is the tide of Popular Opinion. ... At present 
it is hope alone that buoys me up ; for more substantial support I must 
be indebted to my own exertions, well knowing that in this land of 
literature merit never wants its reward. That such merit is mine I 
dare not presume to think; but still there is something within me 
that bids me hope that I may be able to glide prosperously down the 
stream of pubHc estimation; or, in the words of Virgil: 

" — Celerare viam rumore secundo." 

("To take my way amid the world's acclaim.") 

Gladstone could hardly be called a very precocious youth. Indeed, 
so solid were his attainmients that they scarcely demand remark, save in 
this, that they were such attainments as in the after life of this scholar 
and statesman have been of the utmost value. 

No suggestion of future greatness was unfulfilled in Gladstone, 
largely because at a time when others have fanned the flame of genius, 
his mind was directed to acquire for himself habits of mind and wealth 
of information such as would strengthen him for the conflict with 
ignorance and prejudice and wrong. Beautiful indeed has been the 
picture of this boy romping about Windsor, filling his spirit with that 
flood of historic intelligence which comes through every such place and 
appeals strongly to every such spirit, learning to do his duty and to 
revere the institutions which had come out of the sacred past, and 
thrilled now and then with the vision of the future which made his blood 
run more swiftly in pure and healthy veins, and his mind attach itself 
through warm affections to the young men who furnished him with the 
rarest companionship in thought and in hope, and to his teachers, who, 
from the first, saw rising before them a personality whose contribution, 
either to literature, pohtics, art, or religion, was worthy to be guarded 
and preserved. 

Capacity for friendship has been one of Gladstone's most notable 
qualities, and it is doubtful if more of his genius has not been invested 
in his personal friendships than in aught else in his life. When one 



34 GLADSTONE: A BIOGRAPHICAL STUDY. 

considers the number and kinds of letters which have been written out 
of his heart and have found their way into the biographies pubhshed 
in the last fifty years, and especially when one looks upon these letters 
as the personal bonds along which traveled from mind to mind the best 
life of the writer and the reader, one has some conception of how in- 
tense and comprehensive and true was the soul whose outpourings they 
are. They evince an incisive intellect; they prove a tender heart. Many 
of his friendships began in early life. At Eton he was warmly attached 
to Alexander Kinglake, who afterwards differed from him with that 
severity and outspokenness which have left their mark in historical 
literature, and Frederick Tennyson, — far too little read and appre- 
ciated as a student of classical life and as a poet bringing back to us the 
light and atmosphere of Greece — spent many a long evening with 
young Gladstone over subjects which the latter was to master and 
illuminate. He knew well the two boys who were to become, the 
one Earl of Elgin, the other Earl Canning. The friendship of Gladstone 
and Kinglake was never broken, though the former was likely to write 
of Gladstone in the manner which the following extract will indicate: 

"If Mr. Gladstone was famous among us for the splendor of his elo- 
quence, his unaffected piety, and for his blameless life he was also celebrated 
far and wide for a more than common liveliness of conscience. He had 
once imagined it to be his duty to quit a government, and to burst through 
strong ties of friendship and gratitude, by reason of a thin shade of differ- 
ence on the subject of white or brown sugar. . . . His friends lived in 
dread of his virtues, as tending to make him whimsical and unstable; and 
the practical politicians, perceiving he was not to be depended on for party 
purposes, and was bent upon none but lofty objects, used to look upon 
him as dangerous, used to call him behind his back a good man, in the 
worst sense of the term." 

This was written in 1865, after Oxford had been represented by him 
in the House of Commons and Gladstone had grown beyond the con- 
fines of its Conservative sympathies. It was also after the great Chan- 
cellor of the Exchequer had opposed the Crimean War, whose historian 
Kinglake became. 

Most intimate among Gladstone's friends was the beautiful and 
promising youth already referred to, whose personality Tennyson has 



SCHOOL DAYS AT ETON. 35 

memorialized in the largest and sweetest threnody in any language — 
Arthur Henry Hallam. Gladstone and Hallam were breakfasting to- 
gether, walking together, rowing together, reading poetry together, 
discussing historical characters and marking out courses each for the 
other, during school time, and in the short vacations they entered into 
lively correspondence, some of which is as tender and beautiful as the 
lines of the late Poet Laureate, whose love for Hallam was equalled only 
by Gladstone's. Gladstone seems never to have passed from under 
the subtle and glowing influence of Hallam. He saw him at the dawn, 
and all the tremulous colors of that era of his hfe drifted into the soul 
and memory of the great political leader who then shared his friendship 
so profoundly. 

Hallam persisted that Gladstone could write better things than even 
his early verses on Canning: 

Yet while I mourn with low and feeble strain. 

The dearth of children of the lofty lyre. 
And while I weep for that Parnassian plain. 

Where wont to gleam the Poet's noble fire; 
Where old Masonides sublimer sings, 
Than e'er on earth, of heroes, sages^ kings; 
Where Virgil quaffs the waters of the blest — 
The sacred bands in .seats of gladness rest — 
Yet let my Muse her humble tribute pay 
To Canning's eloquence, to Canning's lay. 
Say not the flow'rs of poesy are dead. 
While the Nine wreathe with laurels Canning's head: 
Say not the fount of eloquence is dry. 
It springs from Canning's lip, and sparkles in his eye! 
Yet, ah! the bright but evanescent fire 
Burn'd but to die, and gleam'd but to expire! 
The buds of Poesy the Muses gave. 
Neglected lie, and wither in the grave. 
Far other tasks his patriot care demand. 

Far other thoughts his ardent soul employ; 
The helm of England needs his guiding hand, 

A nation's wonder, and a nation's joy. 
He is the pilot that our God hath sent 
To guide the vessel that was tost and rent! 



36 GLADSTONE: A BIOGRAPHICAL STUDY. 

Exalt thine head, Etona, and rejoice, 
Glad in a nation's loud acclaiming voice; 
And 'mid the tumult and the clamor wild, 
Exult in Canning — say, he was thy child. 

It is at this time that Gladstone first appeared before his contem- 
poraries as a promising orator. It required not a stroke of genius to 
discover soon that the literary attainments and dialectical skill of this 
youth would probably be swept into the stream of eloquence which his 
lips alone might bring forth. Gladstone became less interested in games 
as he went on toward manhood, and perhaps a little less popular, even, 
avoiding the usual course of such a man in declining to enter the debates 
of the Literati, which society dominated at Eton in the very way in 
which Gladstone himself was to dominate elsewhere. Young men at 
this time of life are not likely to avoid themes of the largest importance, 
and Gladstone soon was toiling with questions of literature, poHtics, 
history, and philosophy, giving to each theme a laboriousness and skill, 
a courage and earnestness truly audacious except in a stripling certain 
to be one of the most forceful debaters of all time. 

It was very evident that Gladstone had breathed and assimilated 
Toryism when he debated on the fate of Thomas Wentworth, Earl of 
StrafTord. He afterwards had a good deal of difficulty in reconcihng 
the progress of his mind with either Strafford or Charles the First, but 
on this occasion he dignifiedly patronizes the House of Commons, 
"which," he says, "we ought to be able to revere as our glory and con- 
fide in as our protection." 

In one of the most interesting of the earlier biographies of Glad- 
stone we are told that, in closing a speech on the question whether 
Queen Anne's ministers, in the last four years of her reign, deserved 
well of their country, his already growing powers, as well as his earlier 
political faith, are strikingly illustrated: 

"Thus much, sir, I have said as conceiving myself bound in fairness not 
to regard the names under which men have hidden their designs so much as 
the designs themselves, I am well aware that my prejudices have long 
been enlisted on the side of Toryism (cheers) and that in a case like this 
I am not likely to be influenced unfairly against men having that name 
and professing to act on the principles which I have always been accus- 



SCHOOL DAYS AT ETON. 37 

tomed to revere. But the good of my country must stand on a higher 
ground than distinctions like these. In common fairness and in common 
candor, I feel myself compelled to give my decisive verdict against the con- 
duct of men whose measures I firmly believe to have been hostile to British 
interests, destructive of British glory, and subversive of the splendid, and, 
I trust, lasting fabric of the British Constitution." 

This suggestion of Gladstone's youthful and self-satisfying Toryism 
leads us to remember that this school was the hot-bed of just such Tory- 
ism as was most satisfactory to Sir John Gladstone. Cromwell could 
not have found at Cambridge in the early part of the seventeenth cen- 
tury a Puritanism more radical than was the Toryism which young 
Gladstone found here. The young orator's leanings in this direction 
are further exemplified in the following anecdote of Sir Francis Doyle, 
who says: "One day I was steadily computing the odds for the Derby, 
as they stood in a morning newspaper. Mr. Gladstone leaned on my 
shoulder to look at the lot of horses named. Now it happened that the 
Duke of Grafton owned a colt named Hampden, who figured in the 
aforesaid lot. 'Well,' cried Mr. Gladstone, reading off the odds, 
'Hampden, at any rate, I see, is in his proper place, between Zeal and 
Lunacy,' for such, in truth, was the position occupied by the four- 
footed namesake of that illustrious rebel." 

One of Gladstone's ardent schoolmates urged his wish to accom- 
pany his friend to Oxford, giving as a reason for his choice the pros- 
pect of their continued intimacy, and adding: "Gladstone is no or- 
dinary individual, — and perhaps, if I were called on to select the 
individual I am most intimate with to whom I should first turn in an 
emergency, and whom I thought in every way pre-eminently distin- 
guished for high excellence, I think I should turn to Gladstone. . . . 
If you finally decide in favor of Cambridge, my separation from Glad- 
stone will be a source of great sorrow to me." 

Having left Eton at Christmas, 1827, the young man was 
favored by a short time of study with the best private tutors Sir John 
Gladstone could obtain. The boy occupied himself in study and in the 
development of his bodily functions, and his artistic nature found its 
fullest expression in some excellent wood-carving. He now entered 



38 GLADSTONE: A BIOGRAPHICAL STUDY. 

Christchurch College, Oxford. Here the young Tory found himself 
at home, and the very air and spirit of the place matched the hopes 
and proclivities of his own abounding nature. His mother wished him 
to go to Cambridge; but Oxford was his place. Years after this, the 
statesman and scholar spoke thus of both seats of learning: 

"The enormous efforts which they have made for self-renovation 
and extension prove that, after so many ages, they are still young; and 
afford the brightest promise for their future. But it cannot be, as it 
was in the last century, a future of somnolent predominance. Youthful 
and active companions have come into the field, to extend the range 
of culture, and to insure its adaptation to modern wants; perhaps also 
to forbid relapses into lethargy, and to provide a fresh access of material 
for the finishing hand to work on. To secure their position, as well as 
to attain their proper ends, the nation will ask from her ancient and 
still paramount Universities a constant increase of energetic exertion. 
Doubtless they may learn one from the other; but neither, I trust, 
will ever be ashamed of its distinctive character, which has been main- 
tained through the vicissitudes of so long a time. We have each, 
whether individuals or institutions, to recognize the determining lines 
of our own several formations, which are in truth conditions essential 
for turning those formations to the best account. The chief dangers 
before them are probably two : one that in research, considered as apart 
from their teaching office, they should relax and consequently dwindle; 
the other that, under pressure from without, they should lean, if ever 
so little, to that theory of education which would have it to construct 
machines of so many horse-power, rather than to form character, and to 
rear into true excellence the marvelous creature we call man; which 
gloats upon success in life, Instead of studying to secure that the man 
shall ever be greater than his work and never bounded by it, but that 
his eye shall boldly run (in the language of Wordsworth) — 

"Along the line of limitless desires." 



CHAPTER III. 

CHRISTCHURCH COLLEGE, OXFORD. 

At one time in his career it was strongly suspected that Father 
Newman had so influenced Gladstone that he was likely to become a 
Roman Catholic. Vast as were the differences of constitution, the 
mighty and beautiful spirit of Newman was sure to find a most sym- 
pathetic echo for many of his utterances in Gladstone. This much is 
said because it is of great importance in the estimate of Gladstone that 
we should remember how much and how little Christchurch College 
did for him, and also how much and how little the subtle and charming 
personality of another Oxford College did for him through Newman. 
Gladstone's nature was churchly, and he might have sung with Emer- 
son: 

I like a monk; I like a cowl; 

I love a prophet of the soul; 

And on my heart monastic aisles 

Fall like sweet strains or pensive smiles. 

Christchurch College, Oxford, was created in the hour when medi- 
aeval Catholicism found itself compelled to express its spirit in such a 
foundation. Cardinal Wolsey's princely benefactions came from his 
magnificence and ambition at the time when he was master of England 
and desirous of the papal tiara. Goldwin Smith says of Christchurch 
College: "Here we stand on the point of transition between Catholic 
and Protestant England." There have been times in Gladstone's life 
when the same might have been said, and was said, of him. Not only 
did Oxford influence him by its scholasticism, but Christchurch Col- 
lege, Oxford, influenced him by a peculiarity all its own. Here, before 
the august faqade and in the spacious hall, this sensitive and religious 
youth was sympathetic with the phases of churchmanship persistent in 
his mind and affection to the very last. The reformation which swept 
over Christchurch College has never taken from it or from that gallery of 

39 



40 GLADSTONE: A BIOGRAPHICAL STUDY. 

portraits which enriched the walls, a certain monastic quality and ten- 
dency of piety to which Gladstone has been easily reconciled. The 
associations here were as fine as could be desired. The two Chairs of 
Greek and Latin which Fox had established "to extirpate barbarism," 
gathered around themselves classical scholars like Liddell and Tait 
which latter was to be the future Archbishop of Canterbury. Here were 
Sidney Herbert and Sir Francis Doyle, whose reminiscences of Glad- 
stone and of those times are so entertaining and just; here was Robert 
Lowe, whose influence upon Gladstone at that time has been too little 
appreciated and whose force as an orator and skill as a debater Glad- 
stone later on acknowledged in a most charming manner. Writing in 
1877 on the County Franchise, he says: 

"Mr. Lowe and I are^ in some respects, not ill fitted for a friendly duel 
on the subject of the representation of the people in Parliament. He did 
not confer, and I did not inflict, a speech on the House of Commons, when 
the subject was recently under discussion. We are agreed, as I believe, on 
most questions of politics, indeed rather closely agreed on some important 
matters, such as public thrift, in which few agree with either of us; and we 
are united, as I hope, in mutual regard. Moreover, we have already, many 
years ago, exhibited opposite leanings upon the question whether the gen- 
eral idea of extension of the suffrage is one which ought to be viewed with 
favor, or the reverse." 

He seems to understand Lowe's value and his limitations, and to 
have felt something of the good humor of those early times in the 
conclusion of his argument, when he says: 

"Let me not then be too sanguine, and let Mr. Lowe abate his alarms. 
His 'excellent principle,' especially when mounted upon such a charger as 
himself, will yet do service in the field. It is a veteran that has stood, and 
will stand, much battering. It may be long before the country is able to 
reckon with it, and the reckoning, when it does come, will be but mild. Do 
not then let it exasperate the nation, by an obstinate withholding of the 
County Franchise from that moiety of our householders which is not the 
least qualified to use it innocently and well. This in the meantime, with 
good measure for the cheapening of elections, will be a great and signal 
boon. And we shall lie at the foot of the precipice, as we now stand at the 
top, in perfect comfort. And our Constitution, 'which has been the admira- 



CHRISTCHURCH COLLEGE, OXFORD, 41 

tion of the world for five hundred years.' Much, when all these matters are 
settled, will have been done to invig'orate the institutions of the land, to 
strengthen the national cohesion, to increase the sum total of the public 
energies, to establish confidence between class and class^ to train the people 
for the habitual, hereditary discharge of public duty. But I am sorry that 
my harp, like the harp 'in Tara's hall,' must yet, amidst all this prospective 
joy, be again 'tuned to notes of sadness.' We shall not have landed in 
Utopia, Some new leaks will open where old ones have been stopped. 
That ancient trio, the world, the flesh, and the devil, will be too strong for 
even an approach to the abstract standard of a polity. The public, a fine 
animal, is strong but sleepy. When he gets active, he gets tired; they tell 
him he has been excited, and it has been bad for his health; he lays his 
head upon his pillow; but the interests, ever so anxious lest he should hurt 
himself by over-exertion, ever wakeful, ever nimble, ever 'redeeming the 
time,' that is to say, selling it in the best market — ^they settle to while he is 
asleep, and make a night of it. There will always be scandals to make us 
humble, and faults and wants crying aloud to make us diligent; but politi- 
cal progress, if intermittent and qualified, has on the whole been practical 
and real, and such, in this land of ours, may it ever be." 

But we will come in closer proximity to Lowt by awaiting a greater 
day for Gladstone. Here also he knew Robert Scott, Lord Elgin, Lord 
Douglas; but the two men who most influenced him then and in after 
life, with whom he came into sharp controversy, yet to whose friendship 
he always paid affectionate devotion, were Henry Edward Manning, 
afterwards Cardinal Archbishop of Westminster, and George Cornew^all 
Lewis, who was Gladstone's successor as Chancellor of the Exchequer. 

In the "Life of Cardinal Manning," by Mr, Purcell, we get several 
sights of Mr, Gladstone which tenderly and powerfully relate them- 
selves to these early days. Manning was in the habit of saying: "Mr. 
Gladstone's geese are all swans," and thus he paid a tribute to that 
opulent imagination and extreme generosity which in Gladstone's 
early youth enabled him to see much more in some boys than one less 
highly gifted might discover. Mr. Gladstone says of Manning: 

"On our leaving Oxford w^e naturally lost sight of each other; Man- 
ning went down into the country in charge of a small parish and I lived 
in London following political pursuits and finishing my education — at 
least as regards foreign languages and literature. It was only several 



42 GLADSTONE: A BIOGRAPHrCAL STUDY. 

years later that I met Manning by accident. It was on the occasion 
of a great meeting in 1835 or 1836, I think, called by Archbishop How- 
ley — a revered man — in connection with the Christian Knowledge So- 
ciety. The extreme section of the Evangelicals had been getting too 
much the upper hand, and the object of the meeting was to put restraint 
on their action. I was walking with the Lord Cholmondeley, a leading 
man among the EvangeHcals but not a factionist, on our way to the 
meeting with the view of supporting the Archbishop, when, in turning 
out of Queen Street into Lincoln's Inn Fields, we rubbed shoulders with 
Manning. After a friendly interchange of greetings and questionings, 
I asked Manning what had brought him, a country clergyman, up to 
town. *To defend,' was his answer, 'the Evangelical cause against the 
attempts of the Archbishop.' That shows," added Mr. Gladstone, 
"that Manning belonged at that time to the section of the extreme 
Evangelicals." — (Purcell's Biography I, 372.) 

The biographer himself adds, on page 97 of the first volume of this 
excellent work: 

"In Manning's letter to his brother or to his father and mother, 
perhaps very naturally, not the remotest hint is given that the sight 
of an apron and shovel hat provoked him to laughter, or that the little 
'Father in God' moved him to anger. But it is more strange that not 
a trace of this contemptuous aversion to the outward honors and dig- 
nity of an Anglican bishop is to be found in contemporary evidence. 
Far from exhibiting such aversion, Mr. Gladstone says: — 'Manning was 
always most loyal to the Church, and spoke of its bishops with great 
reverence. I remember on the occasion of an address of sympathy 
being presented to Archbishop Howley, Manning spoke of the Arch- 
bishop of Canterbury as being the head of the Church.' Some de- 
murred to the use of the term 'Head.' 'But,' added Mr. Gladstone, 
laughing, 'head is a very elastic word.' Then he suggested as an ex- 
planation, 'that Manning, who was always very ascetic, might have ob- 
jected to bishops on account of their wealth and pomp." 

Surely one of these remarks is quite Gladstonian, and indicates 
the agility of Gladstone's mind quite as much as the force and clearness 
of the great Cardinal's mind are indicated bv the statement which the 



CHRISTCHURCH COLLEGE, OXFORD. 43 

latter laid down to Mr. Gladstone in a private letter which recalls 
these very Oxford days. The Cardinal said "The last act of Reason is 
the first act of Faith." 

A noted biographer aptly remarks that there was an absolute neces- 
sity, for the sake of historical fitness, that the youth Gladstone should 
have been sent to Oxford. "The entire atmosphere of the place, steeped 
in its peculiar traditions and its mediaevalism, seemed exactly suited to 
the whole temperament and genius of the youthful Gladstone." In 
this judgment we may well coincide with, and pay our gratitude to, 
Mr. Justin McCarthy for many of the truest and most interesting 
things said of the statesman whose career has swept his own into the 
more powerful stream. 

Mr. Walter Bagehot, from whom much else might be quoted, wrote 
with his usual acuteness, concerning the extraordinary and peculiar 
influence which Oxford had upon Mr. Gladstone's career. Bagehot 
says, speaking of a later date: 

"During the discussion on the Budget, an old Whig who did not 
approve of it, but who had to vote for it, muttered of its author, 'Ah, 
Oxford on the surface, but Liverpool below.' And there is truth in 
the observation, though not in the splenetic sense in which it was ut- 
tered. Mr. Gladstone does combine, in a very curious way, many of 
the characteristics which we generally associate with the place of his 
education and many of those which we usually connect with the place of 
his birth. No one can question the first part of the observation. No 
man has through life been more markedly an Oxford man than Mr. 
Gladstone. His 'Church and State,' published after he had been sev- 
eral years in public life, was instinct with the very spirit of the Oxford of 
that time. His 'Homer,' published the other day, bears nearly equal 
traces of the school in which he was educated. Even in his ordinary 
style there is a tinge of half theological, half classical, which recalls 
the studies of his youth. Many Oxford men much object to the opin- 
ions of their distinguished representative, but none of them would 
deny that he remarkably embodies the result of the peculiar teaching 
of the place." 

Mr. Augustine Birrell, in his vigorous essay on Truth Hunting, 



44 GLADSTONE: A BIOGRAPHICAL STUDY. 

gives another light, as if by contrast, in which we may view Mr. Glad- 
stone. As he compares him with that other Oxonian who so charmed 
and attracted all young men of genius in his time, John Henry New- 
man, Mr. Birrell says: 

"Where is the actuary who can appraise the value of a man's opin- 
ions? 'When we speak of a man's opinions,' says Dr. Newman, 'what 
do we mean but the collection of notions he happens to have?' Hap- 
pens to have! How did he come by them? It is the knowledge we all 
possess of the sorts of ways in which men get their opinions that makes 
us so little affected in our own minds by those of men for whose char- 
acters and intellects we may have great admiration. A sturdy Non- 
conformist minister, who thinks Mr. Gladstone the ablest and most 
honest man, as well as the ripest scholar within the three kingdoms, is 
no whit shaken in his Nonconformity by knowing that his idol has 
written in defense of the Apostolical Succession, and believes in special 
sacramental graces. Mr. Gladstone may have been a great student 
of church history, whilst Nonconformist reading under that head 
usually begins with Luther's Theses — but what of that? Is it not all 
explained by the fact that Mr. Gladstone was at Oxford in 183 1? So 
at least the Nonconformist minister will think." 

These are interesting bits of criticism, and may help us to some 
clearer understanding of the really great man with whom we have to 
deal. Mr. Bagehot used to say: "England must comprehend Mr. 
Gladstone," for every bright man saw, many years ago, how forceful was 
the intellect, and how valuable might be the services of such a man. It 
is scarcely to be doubted that such a youth as George Cornewall Lewis, 
standing side by side with Gladstone in the Oxford days, accentuated 
likeness and unlikeness, as in their later careers it was almost impossible 
to feel that there could be a more interesting biographical and psycho- 
logical study than the attitude and manner of thought with reference 
to the age and its problems, furnished by these two men. If Lewis' 
memory was called dry, Gladstone's memory was dewy and as full of 
lively sap as a beechen tree on a spring morning. If Lewis had not the 
power to exaggerate which belongs to public opinion, Gladstone could 
meet popular opinion and tell it on Monday night how much more ex- 



CHRISTCHURCH COLLEGE, OXFORD. 45 

aggerated it would be next morning. Both men could flood a subject 
with unsuspected streams of light, but Gladstone's light has never been 
dry light; Sir George Lewis' information was often so dry as to be in 
peril of spontaneous combustion; Gladstone's vast stores of knowledge 
had been vitalized by omnipresent imagination. Oxford may have 
made Lewis less enthusiastic, and added a touch of sadness to his native 
indifference; but Gladstone's interest in everything worthy of a man, — 
indeed, his interest in a good many things unworthy of so great a man, 
— has never flagged, and it did not feel a shock of opposition at the 
Oxford which has made so many promising men apathetic. There has 
been nothing cynical in Mr. Gladstone, and his almost imperial serious- 
ness is never sad. If such a man as Lewis was strongest in judgment, 
his young friend Gladstone was sure to be strongest in impulse for great 
statesmanship. Gladstone was sure never to be puzzled by the passions 
of mankind. Within his own soul these forces, unknown in their might 
and majesty to other men, have swept and stormed and been subdued 
into calm. Oxford may have taught Mr. Gladstone a scholastic method 
and filled him with a speculative audacity such as have been balanced 
only by his intense zeal, his practical human brotherliness, and his 
merchant-like demand for results; but all these have been suffused and 
irradiated, and, indeed, led to triumphant achievements, oftentimes re- 
luctantly, but nevertheless steadily, by an imagination which Oxford 
could not entirely devote or pledge to ecclesiasticism, and which, like 
the imagination of a great scientist, has always been ardent with the 
genius of discovery. Only a youth such as he who afterwards became 
Sir George Lewis was likely to influence strongly a man who, possessing 
the courage which afterwards would withstand public opinion, as did 
Lewis, also might lead and utter the deepest sentiments of the public, as 
Lewis never could, and as Gladstone has done. 

The flexibility of this youth, whose character we are now to study 
more at length, which was sure to give him the problems and prizes 
which come to a great orator, was matched by devotion to the solid 
qualities of scholarship, earnest thinking, and careful research. Glad- 
stone became master of that high logic which does not down before 
two aspects of one truth. Oxford and its associations could not harm 



46 GLADSTONE: A BIOGRAPHICAL STUDY. 

this. Lewis might not be able to "take a test without quaHfication," 
but Gladstone would be able to approve the consistency of two ap- 
parently opposing principles. In their youth it was the fortune or fate 
of Oxford to emphasize in each of these men his most evident weakness, 
as well as to nurture his most valuable powers. 

Speaking of his Oxford days, Gladstone's own account furnishes the 
best account of the state of atmosphere religiously and politically. He 
says, writing in 1848: 

"Of this great renovating movement, a large part centered in Ox- 
ford. At the time, indeed, when I resided there, from 1828 to 1831, no 
sign of it had yet appeared. A steady, clear, but dry Anglican ortho- 
doxy bore sway; and frowned, this way or that, on the first indication 
of any tendency to diverge from the beaten path. Dr. Pusey was, at 
that time, revered, indeed, for his piety and charity, no less than ad- 
mired for his learning and talents, but suspected (I believe) of sympathy 
with the German theology, in which he was known to be profoundly 
versed. Dr. Newman was thought to have about him the flavor of 
what, he has now told the world, were the opinions he had derived in 
youth from the works of Thomas Scott. Mr. Keble, the 'sweet singer 
of Israel,' and a true saint, if this generation has seen one, did not 
reside in Oxford. The chief Chair of Theology had been occupied by 
Bishop Lloyd, the old tutor, and the attached and intimate friend, of 
Peel; a man of powerful talents, and of a character both winning and 
decided, who, had his life been spared, might have modified essentially 
for good the fortunes of the Church of England, by guiding the ener- 
getic influences which his teaching had done much to form. But he had 
been hurried away in 1829 by early death; and Dr. Whately, who was 
also in his own way, a known power in the University, was in 1830 in- 
duced to accept the Archbishopric of Dublin. There was nothing, at 
that time, in the theology, or in the religious life, of the University to 
indicate what was soon to come. 

"But when, shortly afterwards, the great heart of England began 
to beat with the quickened pulsations of a more energetic religious life, 
it was in Oxford that the stroke was most distinct and loud. An extraor- 
dinary change appeared to pass upon the spirit of the place. I be- 



CHRISTCHURCH COLLEGE, OXFORD. 47 

lieve it would be a moderate estimate to say that much beyond one 
half of the very flower of its youth chose the profession of Holy Orders; 
while an impression, scarcely less deep, seemed to be stamped upon 
a large portion of its lay pupils. I doubt whether at any period of its 
existence, either since the Reformation, or perhaps before it, the Church 
of England had reaped from either University, in so short a time, so 
rich a harvest. At Cambridge a similar lifting up of heart and mind 
seems to have been going on; and numbers of persons of my own 
generation, who at their public schools had been careless and thought- 
less like the rest, appeared in their early manhood as soldiers of Christ, 
■and ministers to the wants of His people, worthy, I believe, as far as 
man can be worthy, through their zeal, devotion, powers of mind, and 
attainments, of their high vocation. 

"It was not then foreseen what storms were about to rise. Not 
only in Oxford, but in England, during the years to which I refer, 
party spirit within the Church was reduced to a low ebb. Indiscretions 
there might be, but authority did not take alarm; it smiled rather, on 
the contrary, on what was thought to be in the main a recurrence both 
to first principles and to forgotten obligations. Purity, unity, and 
energy seemed, as three fair sisters hand in hand, to advance together. 
Such a state of things was eminently suited to act on impressible and 
sanguine minds. I, for one, formed a completely false estimate of what 
was about to happen, and believed that the Church of England, 
through the medium of a regenerated clergy and an intelligent and 
attached laity, would not only hold her ground, but would even in great 
part probably revive the love and the allegiance both of the masses who 
were wholly falling away from religious observances, and of those large 
and powerful nonconforming bodies, the existence of which was sup- 
posed to have no other cause than the neglect of its duties by the 
National Church, which had long left the people as sheep without a 
shepherd. 

"And surely it would have required either a deeply saturnine or a 
marvelously prophetic mind to foretell that, in ten or twelve more 
years, that powerful and distinguished generation of clergy would be 
broken up; that at least a moiety of the most gifted sons, whom Oxford 



48 GLADSTONE: A BIOGRAPHICAL STUDY. 

had reared for the service of the Church of England, would be hurhng 
at her head the hottest bolts of the Vatican: that, with their deviation 
on the one side, there would arise a not less convulsive rationalistic 
movement on the other; and that the natural consequences would be 
developed in endless contention and estrangement, and in suspicions 
worse than either, because even less accessible, and even more intract- 
able. Since that time, the Church of England may be said to have bled 
at every pore; and at this hour it seems occasionally to quiver to its 
very base. And yet, all the while, the religious life throbs more and 
more powerfully within her. Shorn of what may be called the romance 
and poetry of her revival, she abates nothing of her toil; and in the 
midst of every sort of partial indiscretion and extravagance, her great 
office in the care of souls is, from year to year, less and less imperfectly 
discharged. But the idea of asserting on her part those exclusive 
claims, which become positively unjust in a divided country governed 
on popular principles, has been abandoned by all parties in the State." 




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DANIEL O'CONNELL 



CHAPTER IV. 
THE OXFORD STUDENT. 

Gladstone's career at Oxford was worthy of his name and the fame 
of his after Hfe. He was an enthusiastic and painstaking student, and 
his reading embraced almost every realm of literature into which he 
afterwards went with graceful ease and distinguished power. Perhaps 
this was the time when he dwelt most joyously with the poets, and 
realized for himself, in short vacations, something of the Arcadian 
existence of which they sang. His conduct was above reproach, and. 
indeed, his influence at Oxford was exalting and regenerating in the 
highest degree. Lord Houghton, who visited Oxford in 1829, after- 
wards wrote: 

"The man that took me was the youngest Gladstone of Liverpool — 
I am sure a very superior person." He was inalterably opposed to the 
riotous conduct of certain undergraduates whose wanton excesses and 
brutality caused the death of one of their number in 1831; and that 
portion of American youth whose proper sphere is in the shambles 
rather than in the company of college gentlemen, may derive a salutary 
lesson from Gladstone's decorous and sensible university career. 

Whatever we may think of modern systems of education, and of 
the policy of relegating the classics to the rear, in order that what are 
called "practical studies" may come to the front, Gladstone's career 
furnishes indubitable evidence that such a mind as his can scarcely 
be expected to perform its work in the world without the exacting and 
stimulating culture which these studies offered. He was deeply Inter- 
ested in the life of Greece and Rome as they were expressed in their 
literatures. Even then he was a book-lover in the best sense, and 
began to form his collection of the finest editions of the classics. First 
editions of modern authors, "with the author's compliments," were to 
cover his tables In due time. Every subject allied Itself with every other 
4 49 



50 GLADSTONE: A BIOGRAPHICAL STUDY. 

subject, so that his reading took fiim beyond the estabhshed courses 
of study, and it was soon understood that Gladstone possessed an 
amount of information of which no other student could boast. To have 
heard him when he presented a Budget before the House of Commons, 
deahng with statistics and figures with unsurpassed art and charm, 
made one readily believe that he enjoyed' the contest in which he 
engaged as a student at Oxford for a "double first," exacting from 
himself the incessant labors required to secure the prize in classics and 
the honors in mathematics. 

Perhaps to the cursory view Gladstone would have seemed over- 
religious and slightly feminine in the cast of his mind. Certain it is 
that a friend and companion, writing in 1829, regrets that "Gladstone 
has mixed himself up so much as he has done with the St. Mary's Hall 
and Oriel set, who are really, for the most part, onl)'- fit to live with 
maiden aunts and keep tame rabbits." These were the men soon to be 
bound by the spell of John Henry Newman. His mascuHne quality of 
mind saved him, and he even then looked at life with full-hearted and 
muscular faith. Speaking many years later, he appears as that same 
young man grown none the less believing because of years. Tie says: 

"Life is still as full of deep, of varied, of ecstatic, of harrowing in- 
terests as it ever« was. The heart of man still beats and bounds, exults 
and suffers, from causes which are only less salient and conspicuous, 
because they are more mixed and diversified. It still undergoes every 
phase of emotion, and even, as seems probable, with a susceptibility 
which has increased and is increasing, and which has its index and 
outer form in the growing delicacy and complexities of the nervous 
system. Does any one believe that ever at any time there was a 
greater number of deaths referable to that comprehensive cause, a 
broken heart? Let none fear that this age, or any coming one, will 
extirpate the material of poetry. The more reasonable apprehension 
might be lest it should sap the vital force necessary to handle that 
material, and mould it into appropriate forms." 

Mr. Gladstone has indeed never disdained the proper enjoyment 
of life's full stream of pleasure. He posed not as a pale ascetic. He 
could afterwards fully appreciate Lord Macaulay's love of innocent 



THE OXFORD STUDENT. 51 

festivities, for he did not then refuse to sip from a glass of wine or 
divide a well-cooked bird with his friends. He appears to be talking 
of himself, when, nearly half a century after this date, he writes of the 
essayist and historian: 

"Macaulay was singularly free of vices, and not in the sense in 
which, according to Swift's note on Burnet, William HI. held such a 
freedom; that is to say, *as a man is free of a corporation.' One point 
only we reverse — an occasional tinge of at least literary vindictiveness. 
Was he envious? Never. Was he servile? No. Was he insolent? 
No. Was he selfish? No. Was he prodigal? No. Was he avaricious? 
No. Was he idle? The question is ridiculous. Was he false? No; but 
true as steel, and transparent as crystal. Was he vain? We hold that 
he was not. At every point in the ugly list he stands the trial; and 
though in his history he judges mildly some sins of appetite or passion, 
there is no sign in his life, or his remembered character, that he was 
compounding for what he was inclined to. 

"The most disputable of the negatives we have pronounced is that 
which relates to vanity; a defect rather than a vice; never admitted into 
the septenary catalogue of the mortal sins of Dante and the Church; 
often lodged by the side of high and strict virtue, often allied with an 
amiable and playful innocence; a token of perfection, a deduction from 
greatness; and no more. For this imputation on Macaulay there are 
apparent, but, as we think, only apparent, grounds. 

"His moderation in luxuries and pleasures is the more notable and 
praiseworthy because he was a man who, with extreme healthiness of 
faculty, enjoyed keenly what he enjoyed at all. Take in proof the fol« 
lowing hearty notice of a dinner a quattr^ occhi to his friend: 'Ellis 
came to dinner at seven. I gave him a lobster-curry, woodcock, and 
macaroni. I think that I will note dinners, as honest Pepys did.' " 

Such also was the young and full-blooded son of Sir John Glad- 
stone. 

An essay-society was constituted, called the W. E. G., and the 
young man now presented one of his first studies upon the literature 
and philosophy of Greece, namely, a disquisition on Socrates' belief in 
immortality. The Oxford Union at length took most of his time for 



52 GLADSTONE: A BIOGRAPHICAL STUDY. 

these exercises, and he thus united himself with an historical society 
which, as much as any institution in Oxford, has stimulated literary 
productiveness and enthusiasm in England. Within its walls, bishops, 
prime-ministers, historians, essayists, poets, and orators have been 
trained, as in almost no other similar society's meeting-place in the 
educational world. On the 30th of February, he delivered his maiden 
speech there, at which time the young orator established a reputation 
which led his friends, from that moment on, to anticipate for him a 
remarkable career as an orator. It is interesting in this speech to note 
his rather stern opposition to the removal of Jewish Disabilities. Years 
after, his chief antagonist, whom Gladstone always held in high 
admiration, and to whom he showed every personal kindness, was the 
Jew, Benjamin Disraeli, and Gladstone himself ably defended the 
policy of admitting Jews to Parliament. Perhaps his greatest success 
as a young orator, namely, the speech against the Whig Reform Bill, 
was even better than his pious fulminations against the removal of 
Jewish Disabilities, and it will show the point of view then held by this 
promising youth, and the glorious journey which lay before him ere 
he should reach the hour when Disraeli's Ministry should be compelled 
to adopt Household Suffrage, and when he would see the electoral 
power of the English people safely confided to populations whose 
every existence, at that time, he could scarce contemplate without a 
tremor, Gladstone was at this time, as he afterwards acknowledged, 
under the spell of his father's great friend, George Canning. Years 
afterward he wrote of Canning: 

"It is for those who revered him in the plenitude of his meridian 
glory to mourn over him in the darkness of his premature extinction; 
to mourn over the hopes that are buried in his grave, and the evils that 
arise from his withdrawing from the scene of life. Surely if eloquence 
never excelled and seldom equalled — if an expanded mind and judg- 
ment whose vigor was paralleled only by its soundness — if brilliant wit 
— if a glowing imagination — if a warm heart, and an unbending firm- 
ness — could have strengthened the frail tenure, and prolonged the 
momentary duration of human existence, that man had been immortal! 
But nature could endure no longer. Thus has Providence ordained 



THE OXFORD STUDENT. 53 

that inasmuch as the intellect is more brilliant, it shall be more short- 
lived; as its sphere is more expanded, more swiftly is it summoned 
away. Lest we should give the man honor due to God — lest we should 
exalt the object of our admiration into a divinity for our worship — He 
who calls the weary and the mourner to eternal rest hath been pleased 
to remove him from our eyes." 

One thing that Canning said, Gladstone did not forget and the 
advice served him often: "Give plenty of time to your verses. Every 
good copy you do will set in your memory some poetical thought or 
some well turned form of speech which you will find useful when you 
speak in public." 

Young Gladstone's addresses were so powerful and prophetic that 
such men as Bishop Wordsworth anticipated that Gladstone would one 
day become Premier of the realm, and Arthur Henry Hallam, rejoicing 
in the richness of his friendship, predicted that there was no place in the 
Government of Great Britain which he might not some day adorn. 
He could hardly breathe any other air at Oxford than that of Toryism, 
for Toryism was in the buildings, overgrown with ivy, and it dictated 
attitude and behavior in cloister and market-place. 

Sir John Gladstone might easily content himself, as he reflected that 
his young son w^ould hear nothing there which would lead him to 
trust the masses, or make him willing to teach them anything but 
obedience to their masters. But Sir John had not calculated upon the 
fact that his son had been blessed by a mother w-hose more plastic and 
eager nature belonged to him, and that the world into which his boy 
was to go was full of ideas to which Sir John's mind was a stranger. 
He doubtless went along with others in the feeling that Sir Robert 
Peel had been rightly deprived of his seat in Oxford University, be- 
cause he had made a slight concession in the name of justice to the 
Catholics, but it is certain that there lay before him in the utterances 
and person of John Henry Newman a series of arguments which 
should deeply stir his nature, and command his reverence, even though 
he could not go with Newman to the Roman Catholic church. 

Another rare personality soon exercised a beneficent influence upon 



54 GLADSTONE: A BIOGRAPHICAL STUDY. 

him and upon Arthur Henry Hallam. The former defended Frederic 
Denison Maurice, while in disagreement with his churchmanship. 

But the responsiveness of Gladstone's mind to the sincere thinking 
of differently constituted intellects, the ability he has shown to appre- 
ciate even an antagonist's point of view and the unique capacity he 
has shown for hospitably entertaining the spirit of such men as Mau- 
rice, without fixing himself to their opinions, have often made proof 
of themselves, greatly to the sweetening of otherwise hopelessly bitter 
waters of controversy. He might have said of Maurice what Maurice 
said of him: He ''has disappointed me more than I like to confess, but 
he seems to be an excellent and really wise man." After all, it is diffi- 
cult for such high spirits to avoid the glory of character which is in- 
tenser than that of creed. 

The present writer cannot forget the lively sentiments of gratitude 
which Mr. Gladstone indicated, when once, at eventide, he talked at 
length of the Broad-Church movement in England, its strength and 
weakness, and stopped to pay a warm tribute to Frederic Denison 
Maurice. There was no poem of Tennyson's, among the latter's slighter 
productions, to which Gladstone turned for biographical interest, with 
more of that delicate enthusiasm which expressed itself in his reading 
of it on that evening, than the following: 

Come, when no graver cares employ, 
Godfather, come and see your boy: 

Your presence will be sun in winter, 
Making the little one leap for joy. 

For, being of that honest few. 
Who give the Fiend himself his due, 

Should eight-thousand college-councils 
Thunder "Anathema," friend at you; 

Should all our churchmen foam in spite 
At you, so careful of the right. 

Yet one lay-hearth would give you welcome 
(Take it and come) to the Isle of Wight; 

Where, far from noise and smoke of town, 
I watch the twilight falling brown 

All round a careless-order'd garden 
Close to the ridge of a noble down. 



THE OXFORD STUDENT. 55 

You'll have no scandal while you dine, 
But honest talk and wholesome wine, 

And only hear the magpie gossip 
Garrulous under a roof of pine: 

For groves of pine on either hand, 
To break the blast of winter, stand; 

And further on, the hoary Channel 
Tumbles a billow on chalk and sand; 

Where, if below the milky steep 
Some ship of battle slowly creep, 

And on thro' zones of light and shadow 
Glimmer away to the lonely deep, 

We might discuss the Northern sin 
Which made a selfish war begin; 

Dispute the claims, arrange the chances; 
Emperor, Ottoman, which shall win: 

Or whether war's avenging rod 
Shall lash all Europe into blood; 

Till you should turn to dearer matters, 
Dear to the man that is dear to God; 

How best to help the slender store; 
How mend the dwellings, of the poor; 

How gain in life, as life advances, 
Valor and charity more and more. 

This was written in January, 1854, and, by this time, Tennyson and 
Gladstone had discovered the value of that bond uniting them in deep 
friendship. Tennyson has happily touched upon the qualities in 
Maurice and the interests of his life and thought which afterw'ards did 
much to attach Gladstone to the valorous man and teacher, and to 
liberalize as well as humanize his spirit. 

In 1875, in the controversy which drew from him the famous article, 
*Ts the Church of England Worth Preserving?" Mr. Gladstone said, 
speaking of the folly of attempting to adjust ecclesiastical dif^culties in 
courts of law: 

"Unhappily they came upon a country little conversant with theo- 
logical, historical, or ecclesiastical science, and a country which had not 
been used, for three hundred years, with the rarest exceptions, to raise 
these questions before the tribunals. The only one of them in which 



56 GLADSTONE: A BIOGRAPHICAL STUDY. 

I have taken a part was the summary proceeding of the Council of 
King's College against Mr. Maurice. I made an ineffectual endeavor, 
with the support of Judge Patteson and Sir B. Brodie, and the approval 
of Bishop Blomfield, to check what seemed to me the unwise and ruth- 
less vehemence of the majority which dismissed that gentleman from 
his ofHce." 

Speaking in 1878 of Oxford, Mr. Gladstone said: 

'T trace in the education of Oxford of my own time one great 
defect. Perhaps it was my own fault; but I must admit that I did not 
learn, when at Oxford, that which I have learned since, viz., to set a 
due value on the imperishable and the inestimable principles of human 
liberty." 

Surely it was a long journey, but one nobly accomplished, from 
his point of view, as a churchman, when he left his University, to that 
point of view occupied by him Mdien he wrote the following: 

"The Gospel gave to the life of civilized man a real resurrection, 
and its second birth was followed by its second youth. This rejuvenes- 
cence was allotted to those wonderful centuries which popular igno- 
rance confounded with the Dark Ages properly so called — an identifi- 
cation about as rational as if we were to compare our own life within 
the womb to the same life in intelligent though early childhood. 
Awakened to aspirations at once fresh and ancient, the mind of man 
took hold of the venerable ideas bequeathed to us by the Greeks as a 
precious part of its inheritance, and gave them again to the light, 
appropriated but also renewed. The old materials came forth, but 
not alone; for the types which human genius had formerly conceived 
were now submitted to the transfiguring action of a law from on high. 
Nature herself prompted the effort to bring the old patterns of worldly 
excellence and greatness — or rather the copies of those patterns still 
legible, though depraved, and still rich with living suggestion — into 
harmony with that higher Pattern, once seen by the eyes and handled 
by the hands of men, and faithfully delineated in the Gospels for the 
profit of all generations. The life of our Savior, in its external aspect, 
was that of a teacher. It was, in principle, a model for all; but it left 
space and scope for adaptations to the lay life of Christians in general. 



THE OXFORD STUDENT. 57 

such as those by whom the every-day business of the world is to be 
carried on. It remained for man to make his best endeavor to exhibit 
the great model on its terrestrial side, in its contact with the world. 
Here is the true source of that new and noble Cycle which the Middle 
Ages have handed down to us in duality of form, but with a closely 
related substance, under the royal scepters of Arthur in England and of 
Charlemagne in France." 

At this time began many of the studies to which Gladstone gave 
much of labor, thought and passionate devotion in later years. His love 
of Dante and the completeness of the statesman's understanding of 
the far-away poet had their roots in the soil of these days, and much 
that Gladstone afterwards said in exposition of the Italian poet came 
to him in those years when he looked upon Dante as a great theologian, 
such as Homer was to Greece. Years after he expressed an opinion 
which he wrote out in other form, in 1832: 

"Dante might, far better than Milton, be compared with Homer; 
for while he is in the Purgatoria and Paradiso far more heavenly than 
Milton, he is also throughout the Divina Commedia truly and pro- 
foundly human. He is incessantly conversant with the nature and 
the life of man; and though for the most part he draws us, as Flaxman 
has drawn him, in outline only, yet by the strength and depth of his 
touch he has produced figures, for example Francesca and Ugolino, 
that have as largely become the common property of mankind, if not 
as Achilles and Ulysses, yet as Lear and Hamlet. Still the theological 
basis, and the extra-terrene theater of Dante's poem remove him to 
a great distance from Homer, from whom he seems to have derived 
little, and with whom we may therefore feel assured he could have been 
but little acquainted." 

It was fortunate for him now that he was permitted to visit Italy. 
He there entered with renewed vigor on the study of Dante, mean- 
while writing some accounts, such as the following, of what he saw: 

"After Etna, the temples are certainly the great charm and at- 
traction of Sicily. I do not know whether there is any one among 
them which, taken alone, exceeds in interest and beauty that of Nep- 
tune at Paestum; but they have the advantage of number and variety, 



58 GLADSTONE: A BIOGRAPHICAL STUDY. 

as well as of highly interesting positions. At Segesta the temple is 
enthroned in a perfect mountain solitude, and it is like a beautiful 
touch of its religion, so stately, so entire; while around, but for one 
solitary house of the keeper, there is nothing, absolutely nothing, to 
disturb the apparent reign of silence and of death. At Selinus, the 
huge fragments on the plain seem to make an eminence themselves, 
and they listen to the ever young and unwearied waves which almost 
wash their base, and mock their desolation by the image of perpetual 
life and motion they present, while the tone of their heavy fall upon the 
beach well accords with the- solemnity of the scene. At Girgenti the 
ridge visible to the mariner from afar is still crowned by a long line of 
fabrics, presenting to the eye a considerable mass and regularity of 
structure, and the town is near and visible; yet that town is so entirely 
the mere phantom of its former glory within its now shrunken limits, 
that instead of disturbing the effect, it rather seems to add a new image 
and enhance it. The temples enshrine a most pure and salutary prin- 
ciple of art, that which connects grandeur of effect with simplicity 
of detail; and retaining their beauty and their dignity in their decay, 
they represent the great man when fallen, as types of that almost 
highest of human qualities — silent, yet not sullen, endurance." 

Here also he found some of the most interesting and deeply potent 
associations of his life. Together with friends from whom he was not 
to part he began the study of Virgil, and it was to one of these friends, 
many years after, that he read one of his famous essays for the first 
time — the essay in which occurs the following interesting passage: 

"With rare exceptions, the reader of Virgil finds himself utterly at 
a loss to see at any point the soul of the poet reflected in his work. 
We cannot tell, amidst the splendid phantasmagoria, where is his heart, 
where lie his sympathies. In Homer a genial spirit, breathed from 
the poet himself, is translucent through the whole; in the ^neid we 
look in vain almost for a single ray of it. Again, Virgil lived at a time 
when the prevailing religion had lost whatever elements of real influence 
that of Homer's era either possessed in its own right, or inherited from 
pristine traditions. It was undermined at once by philosophy and by 
licentiousness; and it subsisted only as a machinery, a machinery too, 



THE OXFORD STUDENT. 59 

already terribly discredited, for civil ends. Thus he lost one great 
element of truth and natiire, as well as of sublimity and pathos. The 
extinction of liberty utterly deprived him of another. Homer saw 
before him both a religion and a polity young, fresh, and vigorous; 
for Virgil both were practically dead: and whatever this world has 
of true greatness is so closely dependent upon them, that it was not his 
fault if his poem felt and bears cogent witness to the loss. Even the 
sphere of personal morality was not open to him; for what principle of 
truth or righteousness could he worthily have glorified, without pas- 
sing severe condemnation on some capital act of the man whom it was 
his chief obhgation to exalt? 

"And once more. Homer sang to his own people of the glorious 
deeds of their sires, to whom they were united by fond recollection, 
and by near and historic ties. This was at once a stimulus and a 
check; it cheered his labor, and at the same time it absolutely re- 
quired him to study moral harmony and consistency. Virgil sang to 
the Romans of the deeds of those who were not Romans, and whom 
only a most hollow fiction connected with his hearers, through the 
dim vista of a thousand years, and under circumstances which made 
the pretense to historical continuity little better than ridiculous. 
It appears, however, as if this great and splendid poet, being thrown 
out of his true bearings in regard to all the deeper sources of interest 
on which an epic writer must depend, such as religion, patriotism, 
and liberty, became consequently reckless, alike in major and in minor 
matters, as to all the inner harmonies of his work, and contented 
himself with the most unwearied and fastidious labors in its outward 
elaboration, where he could give scope to his extraordinary powers of 
versification and of diction without fear of stumbling upon anything 
unfit for the artificial atmosphere of the Roman court. The conse- 
quence is, that a vein of untruthfulness runs throughout the whole 
^neid, as strong and as remarkable as is the genuineness of thought 
and feeling in the Homeric poems. Homer walks in the open day, 
Virgil by lamplight. Homer gives us figures that breathe and move. 
Virgil usually treats us to waxwork. Homer has the full force and play 
of the drama, Virgil is essentially operatic. From Virgil back to Homer 
is a greater distance than from Homer back to life." 



CHAPTER V. 

COMING TO HIS OPPORTUNITY. 

As Napoleon was swept into power by the last wave of a revolution 
destructive and ominous, so Gladstone came to his own opportunity 
as a statesman by a wave of reform constructive and full of brightest 
promise for England. If it is proper to call Queen Victoria "the first oi 
the constitutional rulers of England," it must be said that William the 
Fourth, powerless with the tide of modern life, totally unable to see 
anything in the development of republican and democratic sentiment 
save peril to all institutions, was the last sullen and determined un- 
constitutional ruler of England. He serves as a sort of memorial of 
that vanished day when the gentlemen and lords of England gathered 
pathetically around such a royal phantom as was he, and condoled 
with him upon what they thought was to be the ruin of England and 
the abolition of all rights of property. The truth is that at the close 
of 1832 England was full of that excitement and expectancy which the 
trees of the forest and the grasses of the earth know when Spring first 
strolls through the world. The landed classes and the haughty court- 
iers saw something frightful in the melting of the ancient privileges 
and icy prejudices, and Lord Kenyon cried out: "This Reform, so- 
called, will be the destruction of the monarchy!" Though the king 
refused to assent in royal person to the Reform Bill, which was really 
a great act of legislation, the thing was done, the waves of agitation 
rolled back, and even the most cordial supporters of the measure of 
reform, which transformed the whole electoral scheme of England, 
found their hearts anxious and looked to the future with assurance 
touched with something of fear. This tremor of doubt was, for the 
most part, almost wholly controlled by abounding faith in the prin- 
ciples which had been asserted. It was indeed April in English politics, 
and everything was in bud. 

60 • 



COMING TO HIS OPPORTUNITY. 6i 

What could be more to the Hking of Sir John Gladstone, the Tory, 
and less apparently helpful to the development of the nascent Liberal- 
ism of his son, than that just now the Duke of Newcastle should send 
for the young man and ask him to seek the seat in Parliament repre- 
senting Newark? The Duke had no idea that anyone else doubted his 
right to arrange the representation, first of all for himself, and, inci- 
dentally, for the benefit of the other inhabitants of this borough. But 
the Duke of Newcastle overdid it. His Toryism furnished Gladstone's 
mobile and free spirit with a kind of chain for his wearing which was 
certain speedily to make him care very little for that kind of a con- 
stituency and that sort of lordly supervision. 

Of course Sir John Gladstone was pleased when the young man 
came back from the Continent and began to canvass for votes. No 
one thought of the young orator save as one of the chosen bulwarks 
able to defend the ruling classes against the aggression of popular 
reform, and none suspected that probably in the course of that connec- 
tion with the Duke of Newcastle as a sort of feudal lord assuming to 
own the votes of his tenantry, Gladstone would get some notions of 
the elective franchise which later on would refuse the accepted theory 
of such as the Duke of Newcastle, namely, that the pyramid of gov- 
ernment in England ought to stand on its sharpest height instead of 
on its broadest base. 

Gladstone brought to this canvass of the Newark borough the same 
supple and pure muscular fiber which, in a campaign nearly sixty years 
after, was to endure more than even then, when, at twenty-three years 
of age, it was possible for it to stand amazing labors. The intense and 
luminous eyes which for fifty years were to glow and dart and illumin- 
ate and burn amidst the storm of debate, or in quiet hours of friend- 
ship to shine out with all the tremulous messages of a loving heart, 
then exercised their sovereign influence, as this attractive and really 
eloquent young man poured forth his theories and propositions in re- 
markably full and ready speech. These and other striking features of 
his body he brought to the service of a mind intent on defending that 
Toryism which he was predestined to despise. He was opposing those 



62 GLADSTONE: A BIOGRAPHICAL STUDY. • 

measures of reform which were certain to be but prophetic of the larger 
changes he would inaugurate in English government. 

Perhaps even at this time there was enough of the method of current 
theology in him to account for the mixture of dogmatism and indi- 
rection which these speeches indicate. One could easily understand 
at that time how naturally he had desired to take holy orders in prefer- 
ence to his seat in the House of Commons. There was a pious and 
churchly air about him as a speaker. All of the critics of Gladstone 
fail not to tell us that Gladstone was "so much more dangerous as a 
demagogue" because he at least appeared to be religious. A grandly 
earnest spirit, full of faith, is likely to offend those who are never to be 
suspected of religious conviction. No doubt Gladstone perplexed the 
orthodox in politics. A skillful critic indicates that at this moment 
Gladstone was able to give the Duke of Newcastle a good deal of con- 
cern as to the future from the flashes of day-time which came in now 
and then upon the almost hopeless night of his Conservatism. This 
critic says: 

"He was bound by the opinions of no man and no party (Liberal), but 
Jelt it a duty to watch and resist that growing desire for change which threat- 
ened to produce, 'along with partial good, a melancholy preponderance of 
mischief (Conservative). The first principle to which he looked for na- 
tional salvation was that 'the duties of governors are strictly and peculiarly 
religious, and that legislatures, like individuals, are bound to carry through- 
out their acts the spirit of the high truths they have acknowledged.' 
(Conservative-Oxford.) The condition of the poor demanded special at- 
tention; labor should receive adequate remuneration, and he thought favor- 
ably of the 'allotment of cottage grounds.' (Liberal.) He regarded slav- 
ery as sanctioned by Holy Scriptures (Conservative-Oxford), but the slaves 
were to be educated, and gradually emancipated. (Liberal.)" 

Surely there is a good opportunity here to remark concerning Glad- 
stone's being on both sides of the fence at the same time, but we think 
a closer view will indicate that he was then only in a teachable frame 
of mind and was learning something. 

The contest was very acrimonious and prolonged, but Gladstone 
won, his name coming in at the head of the poll. 



COMING TO HIS OPPORTUNITY. 6.^ 

When the Reform ParHament of 1833 met, there began the career 
of Gladstone as a debater and master of dialectics in the region of 
political thought. The Liberal side was represented by brains and 
numerical strength, and that contingent was surveyed by eyes no less 
shrewd and penetrating than those of Sir Robert Peel. The moderate 
and timid began to find safe places for themselves, for it became cer- 
tain that, with O'Connell leading the large body of Irish members in his 
antagonism to the ministry, and the fresh and powerful wave of 
Liberalism mounting in opposition to Sir Robert Peel, even he whose 
skill and formidable talents had been able to mould, if not to conquer, 
opposition, could not prevent stormful times. The Tory missed the 
disenfranchised rotten boroughs upon which he had been accustomed to 
rely, and though in many cases property was represented by some 
Conservative proprietor, the nobility and the large landed interests 
were evidently in a situation where a lesson of lasting influence must 
be learned. The King's speech was an echo of a vanishing past. Ire- 
land's disorder continued, perpetuating a theme which was to grow 
more interesting for the young member from Newark. With Earl Grey 
and Lord Brougham regretting some of the methods of progress, with 
the Earl of Ripon, and Stanley, and Sir James Graham vehement in 
their opposition, with O'Connell standing up for order in the mind of 
England as a promise of order in the behavior of Ireland, Gladstone 
saw the Government majority at first overwhelming all antagonism, 
and yet, although the Ministry had conceded much, he was sure of the 
strong opposition awaiting it in the House of Lords. Here he studied 
the qualifications for Parliament, and he afterwards made the following 
remarks upon the subject: 

"The qualifications which attract the favor of a constituency 
are very various; birth, station, talent, character, former service, landed 
possessions, commercial and manufacturing connection, and lastly 
money. The two circumstances which strike me most forcibly, and 
most painfully, are, first, the rapid and constant advance of the money 
power; secondly, the reduction almost to zero, of the chances of 
entrance into Parliament for men who have nothing to rely upon but 
their talent snd dieir character; nothing that is to say, b;'.t ^he two 



64 GLADSTONE: A BIOGRAPHICAL STUDY. 

qualities, which certainly stand before all others in the capacity of 
rendering service to the country. These again, are chiefly the young; 
for such men have usually, by the time they reach middle life, attained, 
with great difficulty, to wealth or to competence. But they have then 
passed the proper period for beginning an effective Parliamentary 
education. There have been honorable and distinguished exceptions, 
but, as a rule, it would be as rational to begin training for the ballot 
at-forty-five or fifty, as for the real, testing work of the Cabinet. That 
union of suppleness and strength which is absolutely requisite for the 
higher labors of the administrator and the statesman is a gift the 
development of which, unless it be commenced betimes, nature soon 
places beyond reach. There is indeed scope and function in Parliament 
for the middle-aged man, and even for men like myself, no longer 
middle-aged; but nothing can compensate for a falling off in the stock 
of the young men whom we need for the coming time, and we need 
the choicest in the country. The only education for the highest work 
in the House of Commons is, as a rule, giv^n in the House of Com- 
mons." 

These conceptions he never lost sight of through the discussion 
of the question of the Disestablishment of the Church in Ireland, and 
Ireland's social condition, with which themes he has had so much to 
do. These subjects were before the House of Commons at that time, 
and also the condition of the poor in England, and the fact of slavery in 
the British colonies attracted anxious thought. On the subject of 
slavery Gladstone spoke on May 17th and on June 3d, and in his 
speech he was compelled to reply to the charges against his father who 
had used slavery for the ends of business in his Demera estates. Glad- 
stone repeated the provisions which he had indicated in his address 
before the people — that "emancipation should be effected gradually, 
and after due preparation; that the slaves should be educated and 
stimulated to spontaneous industry; and that the masters should be 
liberally compensated." He said: "I do not view property as an ab- 
stract thing; it is the creature of civil society. By the Legislature it 
is granted, and by the Legislature it is destroyed." 

Gladstone does not seem to have stormed the House, or to have 




THE RIGHT HONORABLE WILLLIAM EWART GLADSTONE, M.P. 




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COMING TO HIS OPPORTUNITY. 65 

failed, as did his great rival; and, unlike Disraeli, he left no announce- 
ment that some day England would listen and hear him. His fluency 
and vigorous delivery lost nothing by the "Lancashire burr" which, it 
is said, was on his tongue from the first to the last; and his success 
as an orator was steadily increasing while the House was abolishing 
slavery and Gladstone was helping to see that the slave-owners re- 
ceived twenty million pounds sterling as their remuneration. His 
friendship with Bishop Wilberforce at this time was a delight and honor 
to both, and the Bishop expressed himself as certain that the young 
politician had even larger work than this laid out before him in the 
providence of heaven. 

Gladstone added to his fame as a speaker and man of afifairs by his 
terrible denunciation of bribery and corruption with which the Liver- 
pool elections had been conducted. It was impossible for him to 
avoid Church matters, and he entered into the discussion consequent 
upon the introduction of the Church Temporalities Bill. He spoke 
with all the ardor of a polemic. He desired the support and prestige 
of the Protestant Bishops in Ireland and the other clergy to be in- 
creased rather than diminished. Indeed, Gladstone strangely turned 
to Ireland from the beginning of his career to the end, as that dis- 
tressed and oftentimes outraged people, adding so often to their own 
distresses and multiplying outrage by outrage, commended itself to 
this man of faith and action. Belief in the improvability of the human 
species always saves a man from cynicism in all crises, and rescues him 
from the habit of Toryism which is hopeless in the presence of an abuse, 
unto that Liberalism of spirit which will not admit of a defeat for 
righteousness in advance of every effort for its victory. Meantime, 
O'Connell's speeches and the manner of their reception in the House 
of Commons will give some idea of the attitude of England toward 
the Irish question. Here is one of the liberator's addresses in the 
House: 

"Shall Ireland (he asked) be governed by a section? (Vehement 

shouts from the opposition.) I thank you — (noise renewed) — for that 

shriek. Many a shout of insolent domination — (noise) — despicable and 

contemptible as it is — (noise) — have I heard against my country. (Up- 
5 



66 GLADSTONE: A BIOGRAPHICAL STUDY. 

roar continued, during which Mr. O'Connell, with uplifted fist and 
great violence of manner, uttered several sentences which were inaudible 
in the gallery. The speaker was at last obliged to interfere and call the 
House to order.) Let them shout. It is a senseless yell. It is the 
spirit of the party that has placed you there. Ireland will hear your 
shrieks. (Continued uproar.) Yes, you may want us again. (Roars 
of laughter.) What would Waterloo have been if we had not been 
there? (Ministerial cheers and Opposition laughter.)" 

In 1889 Mr. Gladstone spoke on O'Connell, and the "Spectator" 
thus commented upon it: 

"O'Connell, if he can now see what Mr. Gladstone is doing to exalt 
the Irish agitator's fame in the first place, and in the second and more 
important place, to effect that virtual separation between Ireland and 
England at far greater sacrifice and in far more signal contrast to the 
significance of his early career, which O'Connell vainly sought to bring 
within the limits of serious Parliamentary consideration, must experi- 
ence the curious feeling that he has at last made, as a living writer once 
generously expressed it, a most magnificent 'posthumous convert in 
tardy compensation for contemporaneous obloquy.' And certainly 
whatever Mr. Gladstone may have lately done to emulate the big, pas- 
sionate, careless, and almost slovenly genius of the mighty agitator, no 
one who remembers his earlier career could hope to find a more remark- 
able contrast to O'Connell than that earlier career exhibited. Young, 
refined, subtle, accurate, delighting in distinctions of all kinds, almost 
academic in his cast of mind, an orator who loved to find unexpected 
reasons for what the majority of his party wished to think or do, a care- 
ful student, and most painstaking in establishing the premises on which 
he proposed to build his inferences, but with all his care and subtlety, 
one who had at command the subdued passion which fills abstract rea- 
soning with life and persuasiveness, Mr. Gladstone in 1834 must have 
presented as extraordinary a contrast as it would be possible to find 
under the sun to the wily, unscrupulous agitator, with his glowing 
rhetoric, with his 'broad brush and dirty colors,' and, finally, with those 
liberal and reiterated promises of immediate repeal which Mr. Gladstone 
to a sanguine temperament, but which we should rather attribute to a 



COMING TO HIS OPPORTUNITY. 67 

somewhat scornful indifference to minutia; in all cases where O'Con- 
nell's wish to persuade was strong." 

It is not necessary to describe the condition of things in the Prot- 
estant portions of Ireland at this time, further than to say that 9,000 
crimes in the districts which were naturally rebellious against the sort 
of thing as has been called government in Ireland, added to more than 
300 bloody assaults, in the course of one short year, might justify the 
notion of the best equipped historians and publicists that, perhaps, 
under no flag claiming to be a flag of civilization, was there such a 
state of poverty, ignorance, wretchedness, rebellion, and such a general 
disposition to fight somebody, in the hope of righting affairs. 

Of course the only respectably orthodox and English remedy for 
this state of things for a long time had been coercion, and such an 
indomitable Englishman as Earl Grey had an immense following of 
men who could think of nothing else at this period, though O'Connell 
was alert and obstructive and eloquent with a noble opposition. Soon 
the plastic mind of Gladstone was taught as to coercion in the results 
obtained; and we are bound to say that coercion then was apparently 
a more successful way of persuading people into order in Ireland than 
it has ever been since. Measures of constructive statesmanship looking 
toward heaHng the causes of discontent were determined upon, and 
Gladstone was not a little interested, even in 1833, in the fact that 
Irishmen complained most seriously of having to pay the expenses of 
a church in which they did not worship and for which they did not 
care. It was subjection of the most serious and annoying kind, for it 
touched their rehgious sensibilities, and Gladstone always understood 
these elements of human nature and their sensitiveness, as he under- 
stood nothing else. It had seemed pretty good statesmanship to count 
upon the fact that no set of people are likely to be very loyal to a 
government which outrages them at this point. Gladstone knew his 
own soul and he knew this. The Disestablishment of the Irish Church 
already moved vaguely before the eye of the young thinker. Even the 
Radicals at that time were able to get his ear as they argued that all 
ecclesiastical property ought to be secularized, but he instantly saw 
that this probably touched not only the Irish, but the English Church 
establishment, and of course the Oxonian, who was then seeking to 



68 GLADSTONE: A BIOGRAPHICAL STUDY. 

find in Protestantism some sort of churchmanship which he could 
defend against Father Newman's position, revoked at so revolutionary 
a measure. Father Newman was simply a High Tory in Church af- 
fairs, and it led him to Rome. Logic was with him, his premises being 
granted, as it never was with Gladstone. 

Another very sensitive point was concealed in the fact that Non- 
conformists who did not believe in all the thirty-nine articles at the 
tender age in which such a soul as Shelley is most likely to be exhibiting 
its crude protests, were unable to enter the LTniversities unless they 
subscribed to these statements at the time of matriculation. The 
whole scheme produced dogmatism or dishonesty. Here Gladstone 
found himself in difficulties, but helmet them with the skill of a trained 
dialectician. He said that the Bill proposed to give remedy could 
not effect much, if anything, at the Universities, because of the 
fact that "both in study and in discipline they aimed at the formation 
of a moral character, and that aim could not be attained if every student 
were at liberty to exclude himself from the religious training of the 
place." Gladstone guarded and modified his position on this matter 
with so much of tolerance and with so shrewd an appreciation of the 
larger ideals of education and justice coming into the mind of England 
that the speech itself held a certain promise of a deeper philosophy 
and a more radical statesmanship in years to come. A large majority 
passed the bill. 

Gladstone was already recognized as the man for an emergency, 
and Sir Robert Peel did not need to draw the attention of the party 
leaders to the new member from Newark. Indeed Sir Robert Peel 
at this time had already felt the influence upon himself exercised by 
the depth and sobriety, matched with the ardor and wide range of this 
young man's political thought. It is useless to deny that Gladstone, 
young as he was, genuinely served the great Tory leader in the de- 
velopment of his political philosophy. A*s both of them had taken a 
"double first" in their college examinations, so now they were about 
to take a "double first,"- if such a thing were possible, in their progress 
toward liberal opinions. 



CHAPTER VI. 
JUNIOR LORD OF THE TREASURY AND AUTHOR. 

Lord Grey resigned in 1834, and the King summoned the Duke of 
WelHngton to constitute a Government to his Hking. WelHngton 
was sensible enough to know that the wih which had conquered at 
Waterloo might be stiff enough, but scarcely mobile enough, to serve 
the purpose of England at this time. The Iron Duke unwittingly 
urged a man whose temper of mind would enable him to lead the Con- 
servative party further, if such a thing were possible, as he had already 
led the party far in the direction of something quite as important as 
the repeal of the Corn Laws. A middle-class man was Robert Peel, 
yet he held the heart of the aristocracy of England in his hand. The 
Duke strongly urged Peel as the leader of the new Administration, 
and it was not long before he accepted the task and formed a Ministry. 
He immediately called Gladstone to the office of Junior Lord of the 
Treasury. The young man had already given intimation of that genius 
for finance which made him at last the most skillful and philosophic 
expositor of a Budget the Anglo-Saxon world has ever known. 

Gladstone was then twenty-five years of age, and he had been 
lifted, in his first Parliament, to a position to which his natural taste 
fitted him, and in February, 1835, after having made it clear that he had 
the capacity and training to fill almost any position in English political 
life, he became Under Secretary of the Colonies. Here his great 
business ability demonstrated itself for a better regulation of the car- 
riage of passengers in merchant vessels. Prose was made to yield to 
poetry, for he touched every topic with the light of imagination. But 
more than intellect and fancy were here. In this very Bill which he 
proposed humanity and justice to the oppressed gave evidence of their 
sway over his mind. Gladstone was learning much from O'Connell as 
the latter watched and labored for the interests of his beloved Ireland . 

69 



70 



GLADSTONE: A BIOGRAPHICAL STUDY. 



and he also learned another kind of lesson from Sir Robert Peel, who 
had O'Connell and his party to handle. This latter lesson had to do 
with the weakness of any policy of intimidation, and the probable out- 
come of a policy of justice with regard to that distressed Ireland. 

But Gladstone was a long while journeying toward Home Rule, 
though, like every other Briton, at this time he was greatly taken with 
the idea of O'Connell's, that "no revolution is worth the shedding of 
a drop of blood;" — especially English blood by Irish malcontents. 
He held this along with the other idea that people ought, on general 
principles, to obey the English Government. 

Lord John Russell soon precipitated the question as to the efficiency 
of the Irish State Church, and such was the feeling in Parliament and 
England that Sir Robert Peel, with Gladstone and Lord Aberdeen, 
with whom the latter was to be pleasantly associated after a while, left 
their offices. This leisure gave him opportunity for study, and in the 
course of a few months he began to work along lines of investigation 
which yielded him the largest results in the form of information which 
he kept always in large quantities for questions in Parliament and in 
the form of essays and reviews of ecclesiastical and literary questions 
whose treatment he made so thorough and attractive that these studies 
have passed into literature. 

Before he left the office, he had measurably enlarged the sphere of 
his influence as a political orator and thinker. 

Among the oratorical efforts of this period should be cited Glad- 
stone's impassioned opposition to a rearrangement of Church rates, 
involving an abridgment of ecclesiastical prerogative. True to his 
cardinal conviction that religion is the basis of the greatness of a 
State, he drew a powerful comparison between Rome and England. 
"It was not," said he, "by the active strength and resistless prowess 
of her legions, the bold independence of her citizens, or the well- 
maintained equilibrium of her constitution, or by the judicious adapta- 
tion of various measures to the various circumstances of her subject 
States, that the Roman power was upheld. Its foundation lay in the 
prevailing feeling of religion. This was the superior power which 
curbed the license of individual rule, and engendered in the people a 



LORD OF THE TREASURY AND AUTHOR. 71 

lofty disinterestedness and disregard of personal motives, and devotion 
to the glory of the republic." 

The brilliant achievements which had already marked his entrance 
into political life augured in every way favorably for his sure and 
steady advancement. His friend, Bishop Wilberforce, wrote propheti- 
cally: "There is no height to which you might not fairly rise. If it 
please God to spare us violent convulsions and the loss of our liberties, 
you may at a future day wield the whole government of this land. . . 
Act now with a view to then." 

His intellectual life also found expression in the publication of his 
first book, "The State in its Relations with the Church." The Catholic 
revival, so-called, had swept Oxford, and the spell of John Henry New- 
man, to whom the highest High Churchism was soon to prove too low, 
reached every spirit such as young Gladstone's with almost determining 
force. This book was the rather overwrought plea of Toryism in ec- 
clesiastics. Now Macaulay, who had met and admired Gladstone in 
Rome, was the sworn opponent of Tory churchmanship. He said, on 
reading the book: "The Lord hath delivered him into our hands." 

Gladstone might well have anticipated Mr. William Watson and 

prayed : 

"I do not ask to have iny fill 
Of wine, or love, or fame. 
I do not, for a little ill, 
Against the gods exclaim. 

One boon of fortune I implore, 

With one petition kneel: 
At least caress me not, before 

Thou break me on thy wheel." 

Macaulay's first paragraph was indeed pleasing, even if it con- 
tained something of apparent patronage. The reviewer said : 

"The author of this volume is a young man of unblemished char- 
acter, and of distinguished parliamentary talents, the rising hope of 
those stern and unbending Tories who follow, reluctantly and mu- 
tinously, a leader whose experience and eloquence are indispensable 
to them, but whose cautious temper and moderate opinions they abhor. 
It would not be at all strange if Mr. Gladstone was one of the most 



>72 GLADSTONE: A BIOGRAPHICAL STUDY. 

unpopular men in England. But we believe that we do him no more 
than justice when we say that his abilities and his demeanor have 
obtained for him the respect and good will of all parties. His first 
appearance in the character of an author is therefore an interesting 
event; and it is natural that the gentle washes of the public should go 
with him to his trial." 

He proceeded to congratulate the world that there was a young 
man in England, and especially one in public life, who would set him- 
self to such a serious task. He said: 

"We are much pleased, without any reference to the soundness or 
unsoundness of Mr. Gladstone's theories, to see a grave and elaborate 
treatise on an important part of the Philosophy of Government proceed 
from the pen of a young man who is rising to eminence in the House 
of Commons. There is little danger that people engaged in the con- 
flicts of active life will be too much addicted to general speculation. 
The opposite vice is that which most easily besets them. The times 
and tides of business and debate tarry for no man. A politician must 
often talk and act before he has thought and read." 

It is very doubtful if young Gladstone's friends could have asked 
more than this from the richly endowed Macaulay. But Gladstone's 
difficulty in after life was not that he went to any subjects, except, 
perhaps, those of modern science, unequipped and willing to talk 
before he had thought and read. Macaulay spoke most pleasantly, too, 
of Gladstone's qualifications for a work involving much philosophic 
and careful thinking. He said: 

"Mr. Gladstone seems to us to be, in many respects, exceedingly 
well qualified for philosophical investigation. His mind is of large 
grasp; nor is he deficient in dialectical skill. But he does not give 
his intellect fair play. There is no want of light, but a great want of 
what Bacon would have called dry light. Whatever Mr. Gladstone 
sees is refracted and distorted by a false medium of passions and preju- 
dices. His style bears a remarkable analogy to his mode of thinking. 
His rhetoric, though often good of its kind, darkens and perplexes the 
logic which it should illustrate. Half his acuteness and diligence, with 
a barren imagination and a scanty vocabulary, would have saved him 



LORD OF THE TREASURY AND AUTHOR. 73 

from almost all his mistakes. He has one gift most dangerous to a 
speculator, a vast command of a kind of language, grave and majestic, 
but of vague and uncertain import; of a kind of language which affects 
us much in the same way in which the lofty diction of the Chorus of 
Clouds affected the simple-hearted Athenian. 

"When propositions have been established, and nothing remains but 
to amplify and decorate them, this dim magnificence may be in place. 
But if it is admitted into a demonstration, it is very much worse than 
absolute nonsense; just as that transparent haze, through which the 
sailor sees capes and mountains of false sizes and in false bearings, is 
more dangerous than utter darkness. Now, Mr. Gladstone is fond of 
employing the phraseology of which we speak in those parts of his 
work which require the utmost perspicuity and precision of which 
human language is capable; and in this way he deludes lirst himself 
and his readers. The foundations of his theory, which ought to be 
buttresses of adamant, are made out of the flimsy materials which are 
fit only for perorations. This fault is one which no subsequent care 
or industry can correct. The more strictly Mr. Gladstone reasons on 
his premises, the more absurd are the conclusions which he brings out; 
and, when at last his good sense and good nature recoil from the hor- 
rible practical inferences to which his theory leads, he is reduced some- 
times to take refuge in arguments inconsistent with his fundamental 
doctrines, and sometimes to escape from the legitimate consequences 
of his false principles, under cover of equally false history." 

All this was introductory to the carrying out of Macaulay's plan, 
namely, to crush the young Tory's theory of Church and State, which 
had such admirable statement at his hands. Macaulay disclaims any 
intention of attacking the Church. He said: 

'Tt is possible that some persons that have read Mr. Gladstone's 
book carelessly, and others who have merely heard in conversation, 
or seen in a newspaper, that the member for Newark has written in 
defense of the Church of England against the supporters of the vol- 
untary system, may imagine that we are writing in defense of the 
voluntary system, and that we desire the abolition of the Established 
Church. This is not the case. It would be as unjust to accuse us 



74 GLADSTONE: A BIOGRAPHICAL STUDY. 

of attacking the Church, because we attack Mr. Gladstone's doctrines, 
as it would be to accuse Locke of wishing for anarchy, because he 
refuted Filmer's patriarchal theory of government, or to accuse Black- 
stone of recommending the confiscation of ecclesiastical property, 
because he denied that the right of the rector to tithe was derived from 
the Levitical law. It is to be observed, that Mr. Gladstone rests his 
case on entirely new grounds, and does not differ more widely from 
us than from some of those who have hitherto been considered as the 
most illustrious champions of the Church. He is not content with the 
Ecclesiastical Polity, and rejoices that the latter part of that celebrated 
work 'does not carry with it the weight of Hooker's authority.' He 
is not content with Bishop Warburton's Alliance of Church and State. 
'The propositions of that work generally,' he says, 'are to be received 
with qualification;' and he agrees with BoHngbroke in thinking that 
Warburton's whole theory rests on fiction. He is still less satisfied 
with Paley's defense of the Church, which he pronounces to be 'tainted 
by the original vice of false ethical principles,' and 'full of the seeds 
of evil.' He conceives that Dr. Chalmers has taken a partial view of 
the subject, and 'put forth much questionable matter.' In truth, on 
almost every point on which we are opposed to Mr. Gladstone, we have 
on our side the authority of some divine, eminent as a defender of 
existing establishments. 

"Mr. Gladstone's whole theory rests on this great fundamental 
proposition, that the propagation of religious truth is one of the 
principal ends of government, as government. If Mr. Gladstone has 
not proved this proposition, his system vanishes at once." 

He had now stated the fundamental principle upon which Glad- 
stone's theory rested. In Macaulay's handling of the subject he was not 
unfair enough to give Gladstone slender opportunity to speak for him- 
self. Indeed, he says: 

"The following paragraph is a specimen of the arguments by which 
Mr. Gladstone has, as he conceives, established his great fundamental 
proposition: 

" 'We may state the same proposition in a more general form, in 
which it surely must command universal assent. Wherever there is 



LORD OF THE TREASURY AND AUTHOR. 75 

power in the universe, that power is the property of God, the King of 
that universe — his property of right, however for a time withholden 
or abused. Now this property is, as it were, realized, is used according 
. to the will of the owner, when it is used for the purposes he has ordained, 
and in the temper of mercy, justice, truth, and faith which he has 
taught us. But those principles can never be truly, never can be per- 
manently, entertained in the human breast, except by a continual 
reference to their source and the supply of the Divine grace. The 
powers, therefore, that dwell in individuals acting as a government, as 
well as those that dwell in individuals acting for themselves, can only 
be secured for right uses by applying to them a religion.' 

"Here are propositions of vast and indefinite extent, conveyed 
in language which has a certain obscure dignity and sanctity, attractive, 
we doubt not, to many minds. But the moment that we examine these 
propositions closely, the moment that we bring them to the test by 
running over but a very few of the particulars which are included in 
them, we find them to be false and extravagant. The doctrine which 
'must surely command universal assent' in this, that every association 
of human beings which exercises any power whatever, that is to say, 
every association of human beings, is bound, as such association, to 
profess a religion. Imagine the effect which would follow if this 
principle were really in force during four-and-twenty hours. Take one 
instance out of a million. A stage-coach company has power over its 
horses. This power is the property of God. It is used according to 
the will of God when it is used with mercy. But the principle of mercy 
can never be truly or permanently entertained in the human breast 
without continual reference to God. The powers, therefore, that dwell 
in individuals, acting as a stage-coach company, can only be secured 
for right uses by applying to them a religion. Every stage-coach com- 
pany ought, therefore, in its collective capacity, to profess some one 
faith, to have its articles, and its public worship, and its tests. That 
this conclusion, and an infinite number of other conclusions equally 
strange, follow of necessity from Mr. Gladstone's principle, is as certain 
as it is that two and two make four. And, if the legitimate conclusions 
be so absurd, there must be something unsound in the principle." 



76 GLADSTONE: A BIOGRAPHICAL STUDY. 

It is a curious fact that Macaulay placed his finger at once upon 
the quaHty of Gladstone's language, insisting that it had "a certain ob- 
scure dignity and sanctity, attractive, no doubt, to many minds." Glad- 
stone never lost his churchliness of literary style. After dealing with 
this passage quoted from Gladstone, Macaulay says: 

"We will quote another passage of the same sort: 

" 'Why, then, we now come to ask, should the governing body in 
a state profess a religion? First, because it is composed of individual 
men; and they, being appointed to act in a definite moral capacity, 
must sanctify their acts clone in that capacity by the offices of religion; 
inasmuch as the acts cannot otherwise be acceptable to God, or any- 
thing but sinful and punishable in themselves. And whenever we turn 
our face away from God in our conduct, we are living atheistically. . . 
In fulfilment, then, of his obligations as an individual, the statesman 
must be a worshiping man. But his acts are public — the powers and 
instruments with which he works are public — acting under and by the 
authority of the law, he moves at his word ten thousand subject arms; 
and because such energies are thus essentially public, and wholly out 
of the range of mere individual agency, they must be sanctified not 
only by the private personal prayers and piety of those who fill public 
situations, but also by public acts of the men composing the public 
body. They must offer prayer and praise in their public and collective 
character — in that character wherein they constitute the organ of the 
nation, and wield its collective force. Wherever there is a reasoning 
agency, there is a moral duty and responsibility involved in it. The 
governors are reasoning agents for the nation, in their conjoint acts 
as such. And therefore there must be attached to this agency, as that 
without which none of our responsibilities can be met, a religion. 
And this religion must be that of the conscience of the governor, or 
none.' 

"Here again we find propositions of vast sweep, and of sound so 
orthodox and solemn that many good people, we doubt not, have been 
greatly edified by it. But let us examine the words closely; and it 
will immediately become plain that, if these principles be once ad- 
mitted, there is an end of all society. No combination can be formed 



LORD OF THE TREASURY AND AUTHOR. y^ 

for any purpose of mutual help, for trade, for public works, for the 
relief of the sick or the poor, for the promotion of art or science, unless 
the members of the combination agree in their theological opinions. 
Take any such combination at random, the London and Birmingham 
Railway Company, for example, and observe to what consequences 
Mr. Gladstone's arguments inevitably lead. 'Why should the di- 
rectors of the Railway Company, in their collective capacity, profess 
a religion? First, because the direction is composed of individual 
men appointed to act in a definite moral capacity, bound to look care- 
fully to the property, the limbs, and the lives of their fellow-creatures, 
bound to act diligently for their constituents, bound to govern their 
servants with humanity and justice, bound to fulfill with fidelity many 
important contracts. They must, therefore, sanctify their acts by the 
offices of religion or these acts will be sinful and punishable in them- 
selves. 

'[ Tn fulfillment, then, of his obligations as an individual, the Di- 
rector of the London and Birmingham Railway Company must be a 
worshiping man. But his acts are public. He acts for a body. And 
because these energies are out of the range of his mere individual 
agency, they must be sanctified by public acts of devotion. The Rail- 
way directors must offer prayer and praise in their public and col- 
lective character, in that character wherewith they constitute the organ 
of the company, and wield its collected power. Wherever there is 
reasoning agency, there is moral responsibility. The directors are 
reasoning agents for the company. And therefore there must be at- 
tached to this agency, as that without which none of our responsi- 
bihties can be met, a religion. And this religion must be that of the 
conscience of the director himself, or none. There must be public 
worship and a test. No Jew, no Socinian, no Presbyterian, no Catholic, 
no Quaker, must be permitted to be the organ of the company, and to 
wield its collected force.' Would Mr. Gladstone really defend this 
proposition?" 

It is thus that the well-informed historian, uttering the voice of 
England's somewhat worldly common sense, pushes his inquiry upon 
the churchman. No more fair treatment has any young man of first- 



78 GLADSTONE: A BIOGRAPHICAL STUDY. 

rate genius received from an elder essayist. Macaulay's fairness is 
proved also when near the conclusion of the essay, he says: 

"We have now said almost all that we think it necessary to say 
respecting Mr. Gladstone's theory. And perhaps it would be safest for 
us to stop here. It is much easier to pull down than to build up. Yet, 
that we may give Mr. Gladstone his revenge, we will state concisely our 
own views respecting the alliance of Church and State. 

"We set out in company with Warburton, and remain with him 
pretty sociably till we come to his contract; a contract which Mr. 
Gladstone very properly designates as a fiction. We consider the pri- 
mary end of government as a purely temporal end, the protection of 
the persons and the property of men. 

"We think that government, like every other contrivance of human 
wisdom, from the highest to the lowest, is likely to answer its main end 
best when it is constructed with a single view to that end. Mr. Glad- 
stone, who loves Plato, will not quarrel with us for illustrating . our 
proposition, after Plato's fashion, from the most familiar objects. Take 
cutlery, for example. A blade which is designed both to shave and to 
carve will certainly not shave so well as a razor, or carve so well as a 
carving-knife. An academy of painting, which should also be a bank, 
would in all probability, exhibit very bad pictures and discount very 
bad bills. A gas company, which should also be an infant school society, 
would, we apprehend, light the streets ill, and teach the children ill. On 
this principle, we think that government should be organized solely 
with a view to its main end; and that no part of its efhciency for that 
end should be sacrificed in order to promote any other end, however 
excellent. 

"But does it follow from hence that governments ought never to 
pursue any end other than their main end? In no wise. Though it 
is desirable that every institution should have a main end, and should 
be so formed as to be in the highest degree efficient for that main end; 
yet if, without any sacrifice of its efficiency for that end, it can pursue 
any other good end, it ought to do so. Thus, the end for which a 
hospital is built is the relief of the sick, not the beautifying of the street. 
To sacrifice the health of the sick to splendor of architectural efifect, 



LORD OF THE TREASURY AND AUTHOR. 79 

to place the building in a bad air only that it may present a more com- 
manding front to a great public place, to make the wards hotter or 
cooler than they ought to be, in order that the columns and windows 
of the exterior may please the passers-by, would be monstrous. But if, 
without any sacrifice of the chief object, the hospital can be made an 
ornament to the metropolis, it would be absurd not to make it so, 

''In the same manner, if a government can, without any sacrifice of 
its main end, promote any other good work, it ought to do so. The 
encouragement of the fine arts, for example, is by no means the main 
end of government; and it would be absurd, in constituting a govern- 
ment, to bestow a thought on the question, whether it would be a gov- 
ernment likely to train Raphaels and Domenichinos. But it by no 
means follows that it is improper for a government to form a national 
gallery of pictures. The same may be said of patronage bestowed on 
learned men, of the publication of archives, of the collecting of libraries, 
menageries, plants, fossils, antiques, of journeys and voyages for pur- 
poses of geographical discovery or astronomical observation. It is 
not for these ends that government may have at its command resources 
which will enable it, without injury to its main end, to pursue these 
collateral ends far more effectually than any individual or any volun- 
tary association could do. If so, government ought to pursue these 
collateral ends. 

'Tt is still more evidently the duty of government to promote, always 
in subordination to its main end, everything which is useful as a means 
for the attaining of that main end. The improvement of steam navi- 
gation, for example, is by no means a primary object of government. 
But as steam vessels are useful for the purpose of national defense, 
and for the purpose of facilitating intercourse between distant provinces, 
and of thereby consolidating the force of the empire, it may be the 
bounden duty of government to encourage ingenious men to perfect 
an invention which so directly tends to make the State more efficient 
for its great primary end." 

But this is not enough. He adds, after outlining the necessary 
failure of a church which depends upon the State : 

"A statesman, judging on our principles, would pronounce without 



8o GLADSTONE: A BIOGRAPHICAL STUDY 

hesitation that a church, such as we have last described, never ought 
to have been set up. Further than this we will not venture to speak 
for him. He would doubtless remember that the world is full of insti- 
tutions which, though they never ought to have been set up, yet, having 
been set up, ought not to be rudely pulled down; and that it is often 
wise in practice to be content with the mitigation of an abuse which, 
looking at it in the abstract, we might feel impatient to destroy." 

He concludes by saying: 

"We have done; and nothing remains but that we part from Mr. 
Gladstone with the courtesy of antagonists who bear no malice. We 
dissent from his opinions, but we admire his talents; we respect his in- 
tegrity and benevolence; and we hope that he will not suffer political 
avocations so entirely to engross him, as to leave him no leisure for 
literature and philosophy." 

Macaulay was abundantly pleased with Gladstone in after years. 

Gladstone himself, in his famous ''Chapter of Autobiography," 
speaks thus of Macaulay's review of his book: 

"An early copy of the Review containing the powerful essay of 
Lord Macaulay was sent to me, and I found that to the main proposi- 
tion, sufficiently startling, of the work itself, the Reviewer had added 
this assumption, that it contemplated not indeed persecution, but yet 
the retrogressive progress of disabling and disqualifying from civil office 
all those who did not adhere to the religion of the State. Before (I 
think) the number of the 'Edinburgh Review' for April, 1839, could 
have been in the hands of the public, I had addressed to Lord (then 
Mr.) Macaulay the following letter, which I shall make no apology 
for inserting, inasmuch as it will precede and introduce one more 
morsel of his writing, for which the public justly shows a keen and 
insatiable appetite." 

"6 Carlton Gardens, April loth^ 1839. 
"Dear Sir, 

"I have been favored with a forthcoming number of the 'Edinburgh 
Review,' and I perhaps too much presume upon the bare acquaintance with 
you of which alone I can boast, in thus unceremoniously assuming you 
to be the author of the article entitled 'Church and State,' and in offering 
you my very warm and cordial thanks for the manner in which you have 




ROBERT PEEL 




BENJ. DISRAELI 



LORD OF THE TREASURY AND AUTHOR. 8i 

treated both the work and the author on whom you deigned to bestow 
your attention. In whatever you write, you can hardly hope for the 
privilege of most anonymous productions, a real concealment; but if it 
had been possible not to recognize you, I should have questioned your 
authorship in this particular case, because the candor and single-minded- 
ness which it exhibits are, in one who has long been connected in the most 
distinguished manner with political party, so rare as to be almost incredible. 

*T hope to derive material benefit, at some more tranquil season, from a 
consideration of your argument throughout. I am painfully sensible, when- 
ever I have occasion to reopen the book, of its shortcomings, not only of 
the subject, but even of my own conceptions; and I am led to suspect 
that, under the influence of most kindly feelings, you have omitted to 
criticise many things besides the argument, which might fairly have come 
within your animadversion. 

"In the meantime I hope you will allow me to apprise you that on one 
material point especially I am not so far removed from you as you suppose. 
I am not conscious that I have said either that the Test Act should be 
repealed, or that it should not have been passed: and though on such 
subjects language has many bearings which escape the view of the writer 
at the moment when the pen is in his hand, yet I think that I can hardly 
have put forth either of these propositions, because I have never enter- 
tained the corresponding sentiments. Undoubtedly I should speak of the 
pure abstract idea of Church and State as implying that they are coexten- 
sive: and I should regard the present composition of the State of the 
United Kingdom as a deviation from that pure idea, but only in the same 
sense as all differences of religious opinion in the Church are a deviation 
from its pure idea^ while I not only allow that they are permitted, but 
believe that (within limits) they were intended to be permitted. There are 
some of these deflections from abstract theory which appear to me allow- 
able; and that of the admission of persons not holding the national creed 
into civil ofBce is one which, in my view, must be determined by times 
and circumstances. At the same time I do not recede from any protest 
which I have made against the principle, that religious differences are 
irrelevant to the question of competency for civil office: but I would take 
my stand between the opposite extremes, the one that no such differences 
are to be taken into view, the other that all such differences are to consti- 
tute disqualifications. 

"I need hardly say the question I raise is not whether you have mis- 
represented me, for, were I disposed to anything so weak, the whole 
internal evidence and clear intention of your article would confute me: 
indeed, I feel I ought to apologize for even supposing that you may have 



82 GLADSTONE: A BIOGRAPHICAL STUDY. 

been mistaken in the apprehension of my meaning, and I freely admit on 
the other hand the possibiHty that, totally without my own knowledge, my 
language may have led to such an interpretation. 

"In these lacerating times one clings to anything of personal kindness 
in the past^ to husband it for the future, and if you will allow me I shall 
earnestly desire to carry with me such a recollection of your mode of 
dealing with the subject; inasmuch as the attainment of truth, we shall 
agree, so materially depends upon the temper, in which the search for it is 
instituted and conducted. 

'T did not mean to have troubled you at so much length, and I have 
only to add that I am, with much respect, 

"Dear Sir, 

"Very truly yours, 

"T. B. MACAULAY, Esq." "W. E. GLADSTONE." 

"To this letter I promptly received the following reply: 

"3 Clarges Street, April nth, 1839. 
"My Dear Sir, 

"I have very seldom been more gratified than by the very kind note 
which I have just received from you. Your book itself, and everything 
that I heard about you, though almost all my information came — ^to the 
honor, I must say, of our troubled times — from people very strongly 
opposed to you in politics, led me to regard you with respect and goodwill, 
and I am truly glad that I have succeeded in marking those feelings. I 
was half afraid when I read myself over again in print, that the button, as 
is too common in controversial fencing, even between friends, had once 
or twice come off the foil. 

"I am very glad to find that we do not dififer so widely as I had appre- 
hended about the Test Act. I can easily explain the way in which I was 
misled. Your general principle is that religious non-conformity ought 
to be a disqiialification for civil office. In page 238 you say that the 
true and authentic mode of ascertaining conformity is the Act of Com- 
munion. I thought^ therefore, that your theory pointed directly to a 
renewal of the Test Act. And I do not recollect that you have ever used 
any expression importing that your theory ought in practice to be modified 
by any considerations of civil prudence. All the exceptions that you 
mention are, as far as I remember, founded on positive contract — not one 
on expediency, even in cases where expediency is so strong and so obvious 
that most statesmen would call it necessity. If I had understood that 
you meant your rules to be followed out in practice only so far as might 



LORD OF THE TREASURY AND AUTHOR. 83 

be consistent with the peace and good government of society, I should 
certainly have expressed myself very differently in several parts of my 
article. 

"Accept my warm thanks for yonr kindness, and believe me, with every 
good wish. 

"My Dear Sir, 

"Very truly yours, 

"T. B. MACAULAY." 
"W. E. GLADSTONE, Esq., M. P." 

Meantime Gladstone was learning the fallacies of Toryism by other 
means. Poor Sir John Gladstone was preparing to say of Will- 
iam, when the time of the Corn Law agitation should come: "There 
stands my son, helping to ruin his country." Another w^as watching. 
The exquisite and brilliant Disraeli was waiting for a chance to do some- 
thing, and Gladstone was slowly but surely making ready to leave such 
room in the Tory mansion as would grant to the audacious master of 
words an excellent front apartment. 



CHAPTER VII. 
A GREAT PROBLEM IN SIGHT. 

It is certain that, under the new Government, Ireland's condition 
was less distressing, and Thomas Drummond, whom Gladstone in many 
ways admired greatly, almost persuaded England that ability and 
courage would settle the question without much legal change. Orange- 
men intimidated Catholics in the North, and the Catholics often made 
things disorderly elsewhere. Landlords and tenants were at war, and 
Drummond acted upon the principle that there was one law for all. 
This ought not to have seemed remarkable, but it was a new view- 
to both classes. The very landlords who afterwards were outraged at 
Gladstone were exasperated now with Drummond. O'Connell looked 
upon Drummond as "a man of the present," and in spite of Gladstone's 
insistence and his friends' reiteration that the latter could not be any- 
thing but a Tory believing that coercion was what the Irish people 
needed, O'Connell still, as he said, "claimed the half of him for the 
future." 

Many a time, in after years, Gladstone put his finger upon the 
words of Thomas Drummond, spoken in his letter to the magistrates 
of Tipperary: "Property has its duties as well as its rights." True, 
the magistrates of that time suppressed the letter for a little while, but 
years afterwards it seemed to be embodied in fiesh and blood in Glad- 
stone. 

In 1838 the Poor Law was passed, and one of the main causes of 
discontent was removed, and Parliament enacted that tithes should 
not be levied on the tenant, but rather on the landlord. 

On June 20, 1837, ^^^ King had died and the young Victoria was 
awakened at Kensington to meet the Archbishop of Canterbury and 
the Lord Chamberlain, who told her of her uncle's decease, and that 
she was to be crowned Queen. The fact that the Kingdom of Hanover 

84 



A GREAT PROBLEM IN SIGHT. 85 

could not pass into the hands of a female sovereign delivered England 
of all problems which might have come had the two kingdoms con- 
tinued under one head as hitherto. Queen Victoria came to power im- 
mediately after her uncle left the world, succeeding a man who at last 
became kind and good-natured enough, but who had been distinguished 
in middle life by a blunt stubbornness which oftentimes became a little 
contemptuous of the rights of others, and especially irritated at what 
we now call the progress of mankind. Victoria's Coronation-day was 
indeed the advent of another spirit in English life which the young 
Queen brought with her, — a spirit in which constitutional government, 
enlivened with larger sympathy for the rights of the people, and em- 
boldened with the largest hope for better days, was sure to thrive and 
win its way. Her grace and beauty, her dignity and womanliness, were 
all able to obtain for her a popularity which grew at once more deep 
and secure because of the conviction which delighted England that 
the sovereign was a woman of intellectual power. Parliament, of course, 
was dissolved, and the Queen was held up as a person who now needed 
the support of her friends, and that body was begged to send in a 
Government which she would like. When the votes were counted, the 
House of Commons was found to be very much like the old one. The 
Whigs, Radicals and Conservatives, however, came up from the coun- 
ties and boroughs, which had apparently changed their political com- 
plexion. The party decidedly victorious was the party of Daniel 
O'Connell. 

The short session produced almost nothing of importance, but when 
Parliament reassembled, it was evident that everything must wait for 
the coronation of the Queen. London was crowded upon that occasion 
only as it was crowded sixty years later, at the Diamond Jubilee. The 
Duke of Wellington rode amidst a storm of applause and cheers. He 
was at the very height of his popularity, but the day of the Duke's 
policy was passing. The day of a battle for ideas more distinctly im- 
portant to England than the battle of Waterloo had come. Ireland was 
everywhere pressing for attention, when Parliament opened for business. 
The Government had to resign in the face of famine and discontent, even 
in England. Sir Robert Peel, who had the management of her ne.w ad- 



86 GLADSTONE: A BIOGRAPHICAL STUDY. 

ministration, proposed a list of ministers and asked that certain ladies 
who had been related to the Court in the past — members of the Queen's 
household — should be dismissed. The Queen refused, and Sir Robert 
declined his task. Melbourne tried to save the hour, but all these 
things were pointing only in one direction, — privilege and class were 
being attacked, and popular sympathies were gaining the day. Lord 
Brougham stirred everybody by telling the ministers that they had lost 
the confidence of the House of Commons, that they had never had the 
confidence of the House of Lords, and that they only kept the faith of 
the Queen. The truth was that England did not want these gentlemen 
in office. They could not carry any measures, and that is what officials 
exist for. The whole realm was beholding the imbecility of a Govern- 
ment standing on its apex, instead of on its base. Peel had no respon- 
sibility, and could stand of¥ and wait, while the Bedchamber question 
was inspiring other agitations in the mind of England. 
Gladstone wrote in 1875 as follows on the former subject: 
"It was a question whether the ladies of the Court, who had been 
politically appointed, should or should not retire from office. The 
Queen, not yet twenty years old, but capable of contracting attach- 
ments at once quick and durable, resisted the demand. There can be 
no doubt that if Sir Robert Peel had been allowed at that time to pro- 
ceed with his task, the Ministry he would then have formed would have 
been possessed of reasonable stability. But the power" of the young 
Sovereign, applied with the skillful use of opportunity, sufficed to pro- 
long the duration of the Liberal Government until the summer of 1841, 
a period of nearly two and a half years. Its exercise produced, at the 
time, no revulsion in the public mind. The final judgment upon the 
conduct of the parties to the crisis has been more favorable to the 
Minister than to the Monarch. Baron Stockmar himself has expressed 
this opinion. But the question specially involved was the claim of the 
woman in her early youth. It was a claim of which, confined within 
certain limits, equity would surely have recommended the allowance. 
Possibly it was suspicion, the most obstinate among the besetting sins 
of politicians, even in men of upright nature, which interfered on the 
side of rigor." 



A GREAT PROBLEM IN SIGHT. 87 

In the course of the winter of 1838-39, which he passed in Rome, 
he had met Miss Glynne, daughter of Sir Stephen Richard Glynne, of 
Flintshire. Gladstone soon sued for her heart and hand, and their 
married Hfe has been a noble witness to the sacredness and sublimity of 
perfect affection. 

Gladstone wrote these words in his review of the "Life of the Prince 
Consort:" "Happy marriages, it may be thankfully acknowledged, 
are rather the rule among us, than the exception; but even among 
happy marriages this marriage was exceptional, so nearly did the union 
of thought, heart, and action both fulfill the ideal, and bring duality near 
to the borders of identity. Not uncommonly, the wife is to the husband 
as the adjective is to the substantive." No one has entertained or de- 
fended loftier views of the marriage relation than he, and no home in 
England has furnished brighter or dearer pictures to our age of the 
operation of those forces on which governments as well as homes rest 
than Hawarden Castle. 

In 1 84 1 Gladstone again found himself in an official position. A 
reform had been inaugurated in the Postofiice, Parliament had con- 
stituted its committee on education and left the management of that 
subject In its hands with thirty thousand pounds sterling, the Queen 
had married Prince Albert and added his learning and poise to her own 
accomplishments. He furnished England with a royal gentleman — 
something Englishmen had not beheld for a long time. Palmerston had 
made his play with the Spaniards, and then with the Carlists, who had 
been defeated. The war between the Turks and Egyptians had broken 
out, and Palmerston had sought to strengthen the power of the Sultan. 
The Turk had been overpowered, the poor in England had suffered in 
spite of all beneficial legislation, but most important of all, the Anti- 
Corn Law League had been organized and was prospering, under 
Villiers, Richard Cobden and John Bright. The Melbourne ministry 
had fallen before the violence of English opposition, which never can 
tolerate Indebtedness and expenditure unprovided for by John Bull, 
shopkeeper. The last effort to handle this deficit was a proposal which 
agitated the whole question of protection and free trade. Peel had 
the ear of England when he said that such a Ministry was Incapable of 



88 GLADSTONE: A BIOGRAPHICAL STUDY. 

handling such a large question. Down it went, and Sir Robert Peel 
brought to his help William Ewart Gladstone, whose understanding 
of the "dismal science" of political economy, whose grasp of the large 
principles of finance, and whose lucidity of statement when it was neces- 
sary to explain these principles and their application, were unmatched 
in all the realm. It is well to understand that Sir Robert Peel had 
proposed, instead of a duty of eight shillings per quarter on wheat, a 
sHding scale, and on this question an appeal had been made to the 
country. To Gladstone had been given the post of Vice-President of 
the Board of Trade and Master of the Mint. It is to be noted that even 
at this period, when finance demanded so much attention, Gladstone's 
interest in Ireland was pronounced, and he had wished and hoped to be 
sent to Dublin Castle as Chief Secretary. We have it upon the author- 
ity of Mrs. Gladstone that he was quite depressed by his new appoint- 
ment, and that "from the very outset of his career he had an intense 
ambition to take hold of' the Irish question." 

The first Budget of the new Government was that of 1842, to pre- 
sent which involved the explanation of a revised tariff, and Mr. Glad- 
stone had to make exposition in answer to the thousand questions of 
Parliament upon the effect of this tariff on more than a thousand 
articles of trade. The principle involved the reimposition, for a term 
of three years, of the income tax. There was certainly necessity for 
this, or for something like it, and it has been compared with the income 
tax which Pitt insisted upon as necessary to carry on the war with 
France. 

Gladstone stood close to Peel and helped to carry what must have 
seemed a continuously recurring deficiency. The young financier 
insisted, in season and out of season, upon financial reforms which 
would enable England to get resources annually of increasing propor- 
tions. There was a large element of protection in the Budget, and it 
favored home manufactures and the farmers. Sternly did they both 
refuse to make any large reduction of the duties on corn, but the effect 
of Cobden's argument and the utterances of Villiers and Bright were 
already manifest in the fact that the sliding scale on this topic was 
modified. It was a distinct movement toward free trade, and yet a 



A GREAT PROBLEM IN SIGHT. 89 

heroic effort to clutch at protection. It is doubful if Peel could have 
accomplished his act of stretching from one point to another and hold- 
ing both, even with the slight satisfactoriness which the act occasioned, 
if it had not been for Gladstone. Fortunately for England's opinion of 
the commercial genius of this son of the Liverpool merchant, fortunately 
for Peel's administration, fortunately for those who on the one side 
thought free trade had obtained too little and those who on the other 
side thought free trade had obtained too much, prosperity came to the 
realm, and Gladstone's defense of the Budget appeared to be even a 
more brilliant prophecy than it was when he made the desert of finance 
blossom as the rose, by his eloquent exposition. 

It was now becoming evident to sober England, that Gladstone 
was all that Sir Robert Peel had been, with a still livelier imagination 
and perhaps a greater ability to hold fast to the revered past and grasp 
the rather undesired future. He was a greater orator, he was a greater 
financier, and people said he was a greater "straddler." In Gladstone's 
case, this is to say that his mind was comprehensive enough to see 
that evolution in opinion is the law of all progress; and, to adapt a 
saying of Douglas Jerrold, Gladstone knew it is not profanity of the old 
moon to indicate one's admiration and willingness to take light from 
the new. The same heavens furnish both. 

Together were Gladstone and Lord Aberdeen associated, as in the 
previous ministry, and together they dealt with the affair of the bound- 
ary between the English colonies and the United States and labored 
to promote cordiality, which at last Guizot and Aberdeen put in due 
form. 

It is most interesting to find that here Gladstone's mind was de- 
voting some of its best hours to the Irish question. In Fitzpatrick's 
excellent collection of the letters of Daniel O'Connell, we have interest- 
ing information with regard to the persons who embodied at that 
moment a spirit with which Gladstone would have much to do in later 
years. The Editor says: 

"Old politicians will remember three prominent members — Colonel 
Verner, Sibthorpe, and Perceval. Two of the trio looked as if they 
had never need to shave, the third colonel was all beard — a most un- 



90 GLADSTONE: A BIOGRAPHICAL STUDY. 

usual display in days which knew not a full-bearded Premier, as now. 
All three having opposed a small grant to Maynooth College, as 'sub- 
versive of morality,' O'Connell called them 'the Church militant of the 
House,' and raised a peal of laughter by concluding with a parody on 
Dryden's verses. 

" Three colonels in three different counties born 
Did Lincoln, Sligo, and Armagh adorn; 
The first in gravity of face surpassed^ 
The next in bigotry — in both the last. 
The force of Nature could no further go; 
To beard the third she shaved the other two.' 

"Canon O'Rorke in his 'Life of O'Connell' states on hearsay (page 
249) that the above was written by Ronayne, who showed it to O'Con- 
nell merely for his opinion." 

At later dates Gladstone found it necessary to keep some company 
which in the earlier hours of his career he might not have looked upon 
with deliglit. It is at this time that he is least sure he has found his 
vocation as an associate of Peel in Government. He writes to his 
intimate friend: 

"My Dear Hope: — ... I am very well content to look forward 
and pack up my things. If there were any reasons which made it desir- 
able with reference to the future, or the paulo-post future, that I should 
be in ofitice under the present Government, I think they are now satisfied 
and exhausted. As connected with trade, I am certainly a cause of weak- 
ness and not of strength to Sir Robert Peel in the two Houses of Parlia- 
ment. It is not my opinion that on this score he will readily part with 
me: but it removes a cause of regret that I should have had, if the case 
had stood otherwise. And I do not think that another session or two 
would pass without my exciting more mistrust. I am strongly and pain- 
fully impressed with recent disclosures concerning the physical state of 
the peasantry: for whose sake mainly, as my notion has been, we have 
maintained the Corn Laws. Last session I had to answer a speech of 
Cobden's on this subject, five-sixths of which I should have been glad to 
have spoken. My conviction is, that our course in these matters has been 
generally right — but it involves progression, and it is a high probability 
that one bad harvest, or at all events two, would break up the Corn Law 



A GREAT PROBLEM IN SIGHT. 91 

and with it the party. Hitherto, it has worked better than could have been 
hoped, but I cannot deny that it is a law mainly dependent on the weather. 
I have not in office spoken so much free trade as Sir Robert Peel. On 
the contrary, scarcely anything of dogma is to be gathered from my 
effusions, but people will naturally and properly bear from him a great deal 
which they will not take from a whipper-snapper. 

"The purpose of Parliamentary life resolves itself with me simply and 
wholly into one question — Will it ever afford the means under God of 
rectifying the relations between the Church and the State, and give me 
the opportunity of setting forward such a work? There must be either 
such a readjustment, or a violent- crisis. The present state of discipline 
cannot be borne for very many years; and here lies the pinch. Towards 
the settlement of money questions something has been done by the Church 
Commission and the Government, and I think they may do more. 

"As to the general objects of political life, they are not my objects. 
Upon the whole, I do not expect from the good sense of the English 
people, the force of the principle of property, and the conservative influence 
of the Church, less than the maintenance of our present monarchical and 
parliamentary circumstances: And I do not flatter myself with the notion 
that this will be better done by my remaining to take part in it. But the 
real renovation of the country does not depend upon law and government: 
and those who desire to take part in the work, except so far as it is con- 
nected with the specific readjustments to which I have referred, must, I 
think, seek their province elsewhere, 

"Here is a very slight and naked sketch. If 1 were to fill it up, I should 
break the back of a rickety postman who daily carries the Fettercairn letters 
at two miles an hour toward Montrose. 

"Believe me always 

"Your obliged and attached friend, 

"W. E. GLADSTONE." 

Other equally able men have felt that nothing is gained by overload- 
ing the postman at such times as these. 

As a young man, Gladstone cordially enjoyed the privilege extended 
him of visiting at the house of one of the most notable of England's 
bibliophiles, the Right Honorable Thomas Grenville. This high- 
minded benefactor and friend of all who love literature has left his 
name forever associated with the ever-widening influence of the British 
Museum, for to that institution he gave the invaluable collection called 
The Grenville Collection. He had been, as Gladstone was later,, a 



92 GLADSTONE: A BIOGRAPHICAL STUDY. 

Christ Church student and the younger scholar shared many of his 
tastes. At his table, Gladstone was made acquainted with the learning 
of Macaulay, the wit of Sydney Smith, the gravity of Hallam, the 
geniality of Samuel Rogers the poet-banker, and the multifarious 
information and sincere patriotism of a fascinating foreigner who was 
to be Librarian of the British Museum and who was to be known also 
as Senator of Italy, and Sir Anthony Panizzi, K. C. B. Grenville 
at that time was very interesting to the young statesman. Fox had 
trusted Grenville with arranging the terms of treaty between Great 
Britain and America, after the separation. He had been sent by Earl 
Spencer in 1794 as Minister Extraordinary to the court of Vienna, 
and, after having been Privy Councilor and Special Ambassador to the 
court of Berlin, he had become Chief Justice in Eyre in 1800. He had 
seen much of the great men of whom he talked as entertainingly with 
Gladstone as with the elder and then more illustrious members of the 
circle of friends he often invited to dine with him or to pass a day or 
an evening with him and his books. Gladstone often referred to the 
delight with which this or that gem now in the Grenville collection 
in the British Museum was welcomed and exhibited, read and enriched 
with notes from the old bibliophile's hand, for, like Gladstone in after 
life, Grenville permitted no curiosity as to rare tomes to keep him from 
enjoying their treasures. Panizzi's biographer tells us that Sydney 
Smith "with reverent appreciation remarked to Panizzi, apropos of 
the host's dignity and cheerfulness, 'There, that is a man from whom 
we all ought to learn how to grow old.' " Gladstone truly learned the 
lesson as to the fact that a green old age is as secure as May itself 
in the serene companionship of books. He enjoyed, even as a young 
man, the old man's delight as he gathered the twenty thousand volumes 
for which he had gladly paid nearly fifty thousand guineas, and, in the 
British Museum with Sir Anthony, he after related book-yarns in which 
Grenville, many years before, and he, later, figured as one who had 
landed a rare or valuable "find." One can fancy the pleasure to Glad- 
stone of such association as would invite him into all the interesting 
conversation consequent upon being allowed to read and discuss the 



A GREAT PROBLEM IN SIGHT. 93 

following letter, for example, which Grenville the host had received 
from the bibliomaniac, Panizzi: 

"B. M., May 2, 1845. 
"My Dear Sir, 

"I hope you will do me the honor of placing in your library a Latin 
poem, by one Thomas Prati, printed at Treviso about 1475, on the martyr- 
dom said to have been suffered in that year by one Simon or Symeon, at 
the hands of the Jews of Trento. The event seems to have created a great 
sensation at the time, and even at a much later period its truth has been 
the subject of learned investigations. 

'Tt may be true that a boy was nmrdered at Trento in March, 1475. but 
that he fell a sacrifice to the Jews' hatred of our religion, is as incredible 
as it is unproved. So late as about a hundred years ago, a dissertation was 
inserted in the 48th volume of Calagiero Raccolta d'opuscoli, page 409 
(De cultu Sancti Simonis, the martyr, has been canonized and his life and 
miracles are chronicled in the Acta Sanctorum Pueri Tridentini et Martyris 
apud Venetos). That dissertation, written to prove the truth of the story, 
seems to me conclusive against it. 

"Several poems are said to have been written on this subject. One of 
them in Italian stanzas, utterly worthless, by one Fra Giovanno, was printed 
so late as 1690, at Padua, and is in the British Museum. Federici (Tipo- 
grafia Trevigiana, p. 91) mentions four tracts printed by Celerio in 1480, 
on the martyrdom of Simon, but none written by Prati. He moreover 
mentions two (p. 52) printed by Gherard de Lysa, one of which would seem 
to be precisely like that which I now offer to you, if we were to judge from 
the title only, but the particulars into which he enters show, ist, that 
Federici never saw even the book which he describes; 2nd, that whatever 
that book be, it is a different one from this. 

"As you possess the very rare edition of Dante, published by Tuppo, 
at Naples, in the colophon of which Tuppo alludes to the murder of Simon 
'non sono molti anni,' and as the fact is said to have happened in 1475, 
according to all authorities, it may be of some interest to you to possess an 
uncommonly rare book, which may be of use in fixing at about 1480 the 
date of your Dante, the very year when Tuppo began to print separately 

from Reussinger. 

"Yours, etc., etc., 

"A. PANIZZI." 

A decade afterward, we find Gladstone, although apparently over- 
whelmed with other labors, coming up out of them all for a breath of 



94 GLADSTONE: A BIOGRAPHICAL STUDY. 

fresh air, as was his wont, and writing to Panizzi, as though there were 
no other than literary questions in all the universe. 

Mr. Gladstone, writing at a much later date, to the son of his old 
friend, Lord Aberdeen, with whom he was closely associated in Cabinet 
life, said: 

"I may first refer to the earliest occasion on which I saw him; for it 
illustrates a point not unimportant in his history. On an evening in the 
month of January, 1835, during what is called the short Government of 
Sir Robert Peel, I was sent for by Sir Robert Peel, and received from him 
the offer, which I accepted, of the Under-Secretary ship for the Colonies. 
From him I went on to your father, who was then Secretary of State in 
that department, and who was thus to be, in official home-talk, my master. 
Without any apprehension of hurting you, I may confess that I went in 
fear and trembling. I knew Lord Aberdeen only by public rumor. Dis- 
tinction of itself, naturally and properly, rather alarms the young. I had 
heard of his high character, but I had also heard of him as a man of cold 
manners, and close and even haughty reserve. It was dusk when I entered 
his room — the room on the first floor, with the bow-window looking to 
the Park — so that I saw his figure rather than his countenance. I do not 
recollect the matter of the conversation; but I well remember that before 
I had been three minutes with him, all my apprehensions had melted away 
as snow in the sun; and I came away from that interview conscious in- 
deed — as who could fail to be conscious? — of his dignity, but of a dignity 
so tempered by a peculiar purity and gentleness, and so associated with 
impressions of his kindness, .and even friendship, that I believe I thought 
more about the wonder of his being at that time so misunderstood by the 
outer world, than about the new duties and responsibilities of my new 
office. I was only, I think, for about ten weeks his under-secretary. But 
as some men hate those whom they have injured, so others love those 
whom they have obliged; and his friendship continued warm and uninter- 
mitting for the subsequent twenty-six years of his life." 



CHAPTER VIII. 
GLADSTONE AND SIR ROBERT PEEL. 

The year 1843 brought O'Connell forward with his proposal for the 
repeal of the Union. He predicted that the proposition would succeed 
in the course of the year. Monster meetings were gathered, and while 
O'Connell was urging his compatriots to avoid bloodshed, he was ar- 
rested for sedition and conspiracy. A jury of Protestants convicted 
him, and he was fined and imprisoned. Five lawyers in the House 
of Lords reversed the judgment in his favor. The spirit of O'Connell 
was broken, because his health was in no way able to support the 
drafts made upon his power and he had no impulse for a new agitation. 
Four years were to elapse, as he quietly went down the hill to the 
grave, passing out of sight in 1847. England continued to evict tenants 
who had taken the bad lands of Ireland owned by landlords in England, 
and made them rich and valuable, and of course Ireland continued to 
rebel and outrage and murder. A superficial statesmanship — Peel was 
always master of this kind of thing, w^hile he was capable of far better 
achievements — passed a law forbidding Irishmen to carry arms except 
by special license, and, to equal this by an act of genuine statesman- 
ship, he issued a commission to inquire into the causes of Irish dis- 
content. 

Gladstone's service to him at this point had been of the greatest 
importance, and now they were to separate. Peel proposed that the 
Government should grant to the College of Maynooth an increased 
amount for education. Nothing could have been more characteristic 
of Sir Robert Peel than this effort to conciliate Irish opinion. At this 
college the Roman Catholic priesthood were educated. Nine thousand 
pounds had been spent the year before; it was now proposed that 
twenty-six thousand pounds should be spent there, and, further, that 
the laity should have three Queen's colleges for unsectarian education. 

95 



96 GLADSTONE: A BIOGRAPHICAL STUDY. 

Gladstone was placed in a perplexing situation. He could not be 
accused of any foolish anti-Romanism, but he was the author of a work 
on Church and State and he was trying to be consistent with that 
production. Sensitive as only the father of one literary child may be, 
he beheld everything from the outlook occupied by the cradle of this 
infant which was to give him a good deal of difficulty, as his opinions 
grew and his outlook widened in the years to follow. Besides, he had 
not fully considered the measure, as he insisted. Gladstone has often 
been accused of postponing the consideration of certain themes be- 
cause they involved just the difficulties presented here. It was a good 
time for him to insist upon his own conscience, and yet it w^as a poor 
time to be what is known as a "crank," especially if the basis of it all 
was the fact that he had written a book from whose decisions robust 
common sense was sure to lead him to depart, at least in some measure, 
by and by. His old Eton friend, Manning, who was yet a Protestant, 
urged him to remain in Peel's cabinet. George Cornewall Lewis and 
others who admired Gladstone's financial genius, and Robert Lowe, 
who had no patience whatever with Gladstone's wasting his time on 
ecclesiastical matters, urged him to pause before he threw away his 
time and gifts as a financial administrator "on a mere matter of religious 
agitation." Gladstone, however, was as firm in his purpose as if he 
were Bishop of London — an office which many of his most intelligent 
admirers believed he would have filled as none other had ever filled it. 
He resigned and sought to defend the act with that turgid and indirect 
utterance which, we are bound to say, has betrayed him whenever he 
has forced himself or been forced into a position such as this. He now 
astonished a good many of his friends by saying that while he resigned 
his place in the Administration, he would not oppose the scheme of the 
Government as a private member. He afterwards wrote: 

"My whole purpose was to place myself in a position in which I 
should be free to consider my course without being liable to any 
just suspicion on the ground of personal interest. It is not profane 
if I now say 'With a great price obtained I this freedom.' The political 
association in which I stood was to me, at the time, the alpha and 
omega of public life. The Government of Sir Robert Peel was be- 




E. G. STANLEY 




THE RIGHT HONORABLE THE EARL OF ABERDEEN, K.G. 



GLADSTONE AND SIR ROBERT PEEL. 97 

lieved to be of immovable strength. My place, as President of the 
Board of Trade, was at the very kernel of its most interesting opera- 
tions, for it was in progress from year to year, with continually waxing 
courage, toward the emancipation of industry, and therein towards the 
accomplishment of another great and blessed work of public justice. 

Giving up what I highly prized I felt myself open to the 

charge of being opinionated and v.anting in deference to really great 
authorities, and I could not but know that I should inevitably be re- 
garded as fastidious and fanciful, fitter for a dreamer, or possibly a 
schoolman, than for the active purposes of public life in a busy and 
moving age." 

Overshadowing all this is the fact that Gladstone was making a 
tremendous effort to be consistent with his book on Church and State. 
His one effort to be consistent — a state of mind and a method of action 
which his critics have always recommended to him, even with fierce- 
ness — offers results which indicate how much more grand and im- 
portant to civilization has been his apparent inconsistency. 

The Greville Memoirs furnish us with this interesting page with 
reference to Gladstone's resignation from Peel's Cabinet on the matter 
of the Maynooth grant: 

''February 6th. On Tuesday night, for the first time for some 
years, I went to the House oi Commons, principally to hear Glad- 
stone's explanation. John Russell called on me in the morning and 
told me that he and Palmerston had talked over French politics, and 
were both of one mind, and both disposed to say nothing offensive or 
hostile to France or Guizot. Lord John spoke, but not at all well, 
in a bad spirit, taunting and raking up all subjects of bitterness, accus- 
ing the Government of inconsistency, without much reason, and not 
very wisely or fairly, and casting in their teeth expressions which he 
had culled out of old files of the Times. His speech disappointed me, 
but it afforded Peel an opportunity of which he availed himself re- 
markably well, and his retort gave him all the advantage of the night. 
What he said of France was perfect, excellent in tone and manner, all 
that Guizot could require without being at all servile or even accom- 
modating. Gladstone's explanation was ludicrous. Everybody said 



98 GLADSTONE: A BIOGRAPHICAL STUDY. 

that he had only succeeded in showing that his resignation was quite 
uncalled for. 

"Peel put an end to any mystery about his measures and stated in 
general terms all he intended to do. The Government, however, ex- 
pect a good deal of opposition and excitement from the religious part 
of the community. Dissenters and Scotch. Ashley has put himself 
at the head of the Low Church party, and will make a great clatter. 
Sandon did not dare accept the Board of Trade and seat in the Cabinet, 
for fear of disgusting the Liverpool Protestants. Such is the fear that 
men have of avowing their real sentiments on those delicate questions. 
Neither Gladstone nor Sandon have really any objection to the Govern- 
ment measures; were they unfettered and uncompromised they would 
support and defend them. As it is, they do not dare do so, and thus 
they mislead others. They overlook the undoubted fact that inferences 
will be drawn by others as to their opinions the reverse of the truth, 
and that those inferences have a material influence upon the conduct 
of those who draw them. Peel told Gladstone beforehand that his 
explanation would be considered quite insufficient to account for his 
conduct. However, in his speech he lavished praise and regrets upon 
him in a tone quite affectionate. He was in a very laudatory vein, for 
he complimented the mover and seconder (Frank Charteris and Tom 
Baring) with unusual warmth." 

His retirement from official life did not last long. He had sup- 
ported the increased grant to the College of Maynooth, and had escaped 
dropping into ecclesiastical debates, but he had prepared himself most 
thoroughly to take a prominent part in the free trade struggle. Peel 
now saw that in order to deal successfully with Ireland or with any 
other territory, he must attend to the financial processes by which 
England's revenues were to be equal to her expenditures. This re- 
quired a firm and intelligent hand. The income tax of which we have 
spoken poured in its last sovereign at the end of three years, in 1845. 
Peel persuaded Parliament to give him three more years of the same 
revenue. He found himself strongly intrenched with the aid of Glad- 
stone and a surplus. Gladstone insisted that trade should be liberated 
by the taking off of every duty on imports where it was possible. Free 



GLADSTONE AND SIR ROBERT PEEL. 99 

trade was coming, and Peel and he made every effort to lower other 
duties, while all the duties on exports were swept away. Of course 
the farmers and stockmen stood for lard and hides, and insisted that 
their occupation would soon be gone if the duties on these articles were 
removed. The potato crop in Ireland had failed, and famine gauntly 
looked in upon the British Parliament. The Anti-Corn Law agitators 
were gaining everywhere for the cause of unfettered commerce. John 
Bright and Richard Cobden kept England in a healthful state of 
thought on the outside of Parliament, and Villiers, within the House of 
Commons, urged the Anti-Corn Laws with skill and strength. The 
famine grew more severe, and foreign corn went into Ireland without 
restriction, and humanity applauded. Such men as John Stuart Mill 
were beginning to appreciate the situation and urge a juster view of 
Irish affairs. This suddenly imposed study of affairs led Gladstone to 
the Irish land legislation which more than a quarter of a century after- 
wards he proposed. 

Peel's Government was now feeling the opposition of the country. 
Even yet a majority of the middle classes — the brain and brawn of that 
England to which Peel and Gladstone always lent an ear — rallied 
around him. There now arose a man whose very nature and training, 
whose brilliant qualities and boundless ambition, whose oratorical gifts 
and genius for theatrical effect enabled him during almost all the life 
of Gladstone either to organize into successful garrison of defense the 
Lords and other timorous and well-intentioned conservatives on the 
one side and the rabble in the streets on the other, or to unite into 
a pursuing battalion the malcontents of both these classes, thus im- 
peding or harassing such legislation as looked toward a broadening 
of British constitutional government and the strengthening of Eng- 
land's position as a power in the progress of humanity. Benjamin 
Disraeli knew the weak point of Sir Robert Peel, and in the presence 
of Peel's somewhat slow-going qualities, Disraeli's rapidity of move- 
ment seemed genius itself. This fantastic young man was original 
enough to make Peel's solid and somewhat heavy qualities appear 
positively dull before the radiance which the young literateur threw 
upon almost everything he touched. Disraeli saw that Peel held the 

LafC. 



lOO GLADSTONE: A BIOGRAPHICAL STUDY. 

middle classes and understood their tendencies. In the middle classes 
Disraeli did not believe, and he abhorred their tendencies. As he 
entered politics, he was the same supercilious and foppish young gentle- 
man who appeared in the drawing-rooms and in the portraits which 
his friends kept to show their country visitors. He saw his chance for 
a future; he discerned an opening in the vacancies of the Conservative 
household. Gladstone was sure to leave the old home in due course 
of time. Here was a young man able at one and the same time to 
gather together the leaderless and numerous Conservative malcon- 
tents, and to make a bold and strong fight against the Peel party and 
its leader. Peel had once declined to let him have office. That only 
stirred his soul for vindication. He would make his way by another 
means to the ofifice he desired. His talk upon Peel's Government was 
singularly shrewd and powerful. Not for a moment, when he rode out, 
panoplied as the longed-for knight of Conservatism, did he compromise 
his radical convictions. He was not to fail to keep in connection with 
aristocracy and democracy. Indeed Disraeli never lost touch with the 
crowd of half-fed and half-clothed people — the tramp in politics — with 
whose nights on the streets and with whose abihty to create a tumult 
at the door of Parliament Gladstone had to reckon. 

Disraeli had a past to get over much more annoying than Glad- 
stone's. For long years, it was impossible for him to get England to 
take him seriously; he had been only an exquisite fop possessed of 
genius. The recollection of his first speech in the House of Commons 
was abroad in the land; and as an illustration of some of the difficulties 
Gladstone's chief rival had to surmount, we reprint Disraeli's effort to 
speak — for. it was little else. Surely, as Gladstone once confessed, a 
foe in debate who could outlive this was worthy of admiration. Disraeli 
said : 

"I stand here to-night, sir, not formally, but in some degree vir- 
tually, the representative of a considerable number of Members of 
Parliament. (Bursts of laughter.) Now, why smile? (Continued 
laughter.) Why envy me? (Here the laughter became long and gen- 
eral.) Why should not I have a tale to unfold to-night? (Roars of 
laughter.) Do you forget that band of 158 members — those ingenuous 



GLADSTONE AND SIR ROBERT PEEL. loi 

and inexperienced youths to whose unsophisticated minds the Chan- 
cellor of the Exchequer, in those tones of winning pathos — (Excessive 
laughter and loud cries of 'Question!') Now a considerable miscon- 
ception exists in the minds of many members on this side of the House 
as to the conduct of Her Majesty's Government with respect to these 
elections, and I wish to remove it. I will not twit the noble lord op- 
posite with opinions which are not ascribable to him or to his more 
immediate supporters, but which were expressed by the more popular 
section of his party some few months back. About that time, sir, when 
the bell of our cathedral announced the death of the monarch — (laugh- 
ter) — we all read then, sir — (groans and cries of 'Oh!') — we all then 
read — (laughter and great interruption) — " 

So ended the laborious endeavor. He then promised them that he 
would be heard. He had now redeemed his promise and the gladiator 
was on his feet. Disraeli made England believe for a moment that he 
had actually "caught the Whigs bathing and had walked away with their 
clothes," and that the best Peel could do in the way of making a Con- 
servative Government was to create "an organized conspiracy." 

Disraeli's tastes were not likely to lead him to foresee the power of 
young Gladstone, whom he heard speak in the House of Commons when 
the latter retired from the presidency of the Board of Trade, in Febru- 
ary, 1845. Disraeli writes: "Gladstone's address was involved and in- 
effective. He may have an avenir, but I hardly think it." Later on 
Mr. Disraeli attended an Academy dinner, and Mr. Gladstone sat next 
to him. He writes at this time that he found him "particularly agree- 
able." 



CHAPTER IX. 
THE CORN LAW AGITATION. 

The agricultural population was by this time in deep distress, and 
protection had made the manufacturers rich. Peel's sympathy with 
free trade was matched with Gladstone's, and both believed that, be- 
cause there were more consumers than there were producers, and be- 
cause producers were better off than consumers, who were usually poor, 
legislation ought to make goods cheap for the sake of the consumers 
rather than dear for the sake of the producers. Here was the matter of 
corn. It was evident that the nation would be tetter off by letting 
corn come in at a low price and having everybody fed, than to keep 
up the price of corn by the imposition of duties and have only the 
producers of corn able to eat it. Bright's warm oratory ?ind Cobden's 
clear logic illuminated these propositions; but Peel and Gladstone 
were not yet ready to forsake their position that Parliament ought to 
keep up the price of corn at least as an insurance for the farmers of a 
future time, and not for the benefit of living Englishmen. This meant 
that they saw Great Britain would have to depend for her food upon 
foreign countries at some time. War some day might make England 
hungry. But here was actual hunger staring them in the face at the 
present time. The starving people of the present would not down 
before tlie possibly starving people of the future. There was no reason 
to suppose that this present starvation in England could be done away 
with unless corn could come in free. And now Peel's position was made 
for him by force of a resistless event: eight million people in Ireland 
had been living on potatoes, and one night the potato plants became 
black and corrupt. Misery brought its argument to Sir Robert and 
his Cabinet, and it conquered. 

In October, he asked his Cabinet to support him, for he wished to 
remove the duty from corn. Lord John Russell opposed him with 

1 02 



THE CORN LAW AGITATION. 103 

all his force. The Cabinet refused. Peel resigned, and Lord Russell 
was called to constitute an administration. He found it impossible. 
Peel returned to office, with Gladstone, upon whom he leaned as the 
strongest and best debater of free traders among the Tories. Glad- 
stone was Home Secretary for the Colonies, but his marvelous financial 
genius gave all its learning in service to his chief, while Peel wrestled 
with the problem as to the repealing of the Corn Law. Lord Stanley, 
whom we shall know soon as Lord Derby, now resigned and led the 
Protectionists in opposition to Peel. But a change was imminent. 
Lord Russell came over to the side of Peel, bringing the Whigs with 
him. 

January, 1846, came, and Peel proposed to bring in a bill for the 
abolition of the Corn Laws. By the first of July the bill had triumphed 
in the Commons and in the Lords, and, though it took three years to 
complete the abolition, the Corn Laws were repealed. The most 
advanced statesman on this question in the Cabinet of Sir Robert Peel, 
and altogether the most skillful swordsman in defense of this position 
was none other than Gladstone. He was great enough to serve his 
chief. In a later period his presence was more manifest, but there could 
be no dou1)t Init that Gladstone was the right-hand man of the Prime 
Minister in the carrying of this measure, and out of Parliament as he 
was, his learning and industry wrought immeasurably toward the de- 
feat of the ancient folly which employs artificial means to keep up the 
price of human food. 

When Gladstone accepted the office of Secretary of State for the 
Colonies he sent an address to those who had elected him from the 
Newark borough. He said: 

"By accepting the office of Secretary of State for the Colonies I 
have ceased to be your representative in Parliament. On several ac- 
counts I should have been peculiarly desirous at the present time of 
giving you an opportunity to pronounce your constitutional judgment 
on my public conduct by soliciting at your hands a renewal of the trust 
which I have already received from you on five successive occasions, 
and held during a period of thirteen years. But, as I have good reason 
to believe that a candidate recommended to your favor through local 



I04 GLADSTONE: A BIOGRAPHICAL STUDY. 

connections may ask your suffrages, it becomes my very painful duty 
to announce to you, on that ground alone, my retirement from a posi- 
tion which has afforded me so much honor and satisfaction." 

This was an excellent opportunity for him to leave his old friends 
with the best of feelings. But Mr. Gladstone was no longer a repre- 
sentative of Newark, Moreover, he was finding other views developing 
in his mind to which he knew the Duke of Newcastle, dear old friend 
and ardent supporter as he had been, could not be expected to offer 
his agreement. It was therefore well that Gladstone sent such an ad- 
dress to the electors. The truth is that in the year 1845 he had given 
some exposition of new views on the subject of the Irish Established 
Church, It was very evident that Mr. Gladstone no longer stood by 
the fixed Toryism of the Duke of Newcastle and Sir John Gladstone 
on this subject, "Yes," said the proud father, "William has ability; 
but has he stability?" Surely not on this or any question, if stability 
means mental immovableness. Eighteen hundred and forty-five seems 
a long while ago when we contemplate what Gladstone has done for 
Ireland, but it was in a letter to Bishop Wilberforce at this time that 
he gave clearest statement as to the honest doubt out of which better 
faith grew. He said: 

"I am sorry to express my apprehension that the Irish Church 
is not in a large sense efiftcient; the working results of the last ten 
years have disappointed me. It may be answered, 'Have faith in the 
ordinance of God;' but then I must see the seal and signature, and 
how can I separate these from ecclesiastical descent? The title, in short, 
is questioned, and vehemently, not only by the Radicalism of the day, 
but by the Roman Bishops, who claim to hold the succession of St, 
Patrick; and this claim has been alive all along from the Reformation," 

It was well for those who were watching the growth of Mr. Glad- 
stone's statesmanship to remember that while Peel's Ministry was clos- 
ing, while Indian corn brought cheaply to Ireland was relieving some- 
what of its distress, while public works were inaugurated to furnish 
a living to Irish laborers, Gladstone saw the injustice of compelling 
these people to support a church in which they did not believe at all, 
and for which they had no use, either in this world or in the next. 



THE CORN LAW AGITATION. 105 

Meanwhile landlord and tenant were outraging one another, one with 
the law on his side, the other without law, and Peel was compelled to 
bring in a bill for the protection of human life in Ireland. Lord Russell 
and his contingent opposed its stringency. Disraeli, standing behind 
the dignified figure of Lord Bentinck, offered a powerful and stinging 
opposition; and so successful was this antagonism, that, on the very- 
day on which the Corn Law Bill triumphed in the House of Lords, 
the Irish Bill was defeated in the House of Commons. Two days after- 
wards Peel resigned his position. 

Lord John Russell was forming a new Ministry, assured as he was 
of the support of Peel and Gladstone. Just at this time Ireland was 
seen standing and weeping over the body of one who had been called 
"the big beggar-man" — the great orator and prophet of Ireland's bet- 
ter day — Daniel O'Connell. It was remarkable that at that grave Ire- 
land was quiet and orderly. The derision of puny enemies, the noisy 
hate of bigoted Protestants, the blustering antagonism of respectable 
ignorance, all vanished away, and one eye at least, the eye of William 
E. Gladstone, saw in the behavior of Ireland, while the body of O'Con- 
nell was being lowered into its last resting-place, a hope that a wiser 
and juster statesmanship than had hitherto been applied to the Irish 
dif^culty might win this hot-headed and rebellious people into some- 
thing like loyal support to the hopes and aims of the British Empire. 

Soon it was known that the potato crop in Ireland was an entire 
failure again, and that Peel's efforts to give a job to every Irishman 
who needed it had been greatly abused. Public works had not been 
created save at a loss of respect for law and a regard for honesty. The 
roads upon which the laborers had lounged and dug were worse than 
ever, and private employers had found the distraction of being unable 
to compete with public authorities in paying wages. Gladstone assisted 
Russell with all his might to check these evils. He was not in the 
House of Commons, but elsewhere he was in work up to his eyes for 
a better day in Ireland and England. 

The autumn session of 1847 found him in the House of Commons 
again. Oxford University had returned him and he had before him 
eighteen years in which to represent them. Every taste of his nature 



io6 GLADSTONE: A BIOGRAPHICAL STUDY. 

was delighted with the prospect. Except for tlie tumult in his blood 
and the growing ferment of ideas, he may now prepare to grow more 
learnedly and happily conservative. Instantly he was compelled to 
consider and defend a bill for enabling the guardians of the poor to 
give outdoor relief. This relief had been forbidden in 1839, but now 
the poor-houses were surrounded with people needing food, and for 
every three inside, there were a hundred persons starving outside. Dis- 
raeli was developing his sneer again, which he visited upon much that 
was dear to the heart of human progress, while Gladstone was develop- 
ing strength of conviction to deal with a problem deeper than any Poor 
Law could reach in Ireland. No amount of mercy can atone for delayed 
justice. English charity could not remedy the state of things to the 
helping of which America offered an eager and affectionate hand, and 
three millions of the Irish people perished. There was no avoiding 
the fact that neither peace nor prosperity would be satisfied until the 
legal relations between landlord and tenant were altered. The 8,000 
pounds left after mortgages of 9,000 pounds had been taken from the 
entire rental of 17,000 pounds, could not feed the Irish poor and sup- 
port and pay the debts of the landlords. The tenants were almost 
crushed beneath the demands of the landlords who were tempted by 
their debts to oppress them. Improvements in land and in property 
by the tenant did not often result in anything but a demand on the part 
of the landlord that the tenant should pay a higher rent or be evicted. 
Gladstone behaved as a merchant's son from Liverpool gradually shak- 
ing off Oxford, or as an Oxonian happily forgetful, oftentimes, that 
he had the interests of Liverpool merchandise to be looked out after. 
He was growing to be larger and truer than either, or both, to the 
higher destinies of the English people. Now, however, came the ques- 
tion upon which he could easily show himself a narrow bigot or a 
liberal statesman. 

Here and now came an opportunity for the liberalizing forces in 
Gladstone's mind to assert their power. The city of London had re- 
turned Baron Rothschild as her representative in the House of Com- 
mons. Gladstone nobly responded to the demand of the hour and 
maintained "that if they admitted Jews into Parliament, prejudice 



THE CORN LAW AGITATION. 107 

might be awakened for a while, but the good sense of the people would 
soon allay it, and members would have the consolation of knowing that 
in a case of difficulty they had yielded to a sense of justice, and by so 
doing had not disparaged religion or lowered Christianity, but had 
rather elevated both in all reflecting and well-regulated minds." 

A motion in favor of Jewish privileges was carried and Oxford was 
alarmed as to the sanity of her representative and son. 

One thing at this time was becoming clear to him — the importance 
of England's position in Christendom. To this matter he gave much 
thought. He said, on this theme: 

"The political power of England is great; but its religious influence 
is limited. The sympathies even of Nonconforming England with 
Continental Protestantisms are, and must be, partial; the dominant 
tone and direction of the two are far from identical. The Church, 
though in rather more free contact than our Nonconforming bodies 
with the learning of Protestant Germany, is of course more remote 
from its religious tendencies. The Latin communion forces the Church 
of England more and more into antagonism; and we are only beginning 
to sound the possibilities of an honorable, but independent, relation 
of friendship with the East. In matters of religion, poetry might still 
with some truth sing of the penitiis toto divisos orbe Britantios. We 
of all nations have the greatest amount, perhaps, of religious indi- 
viduality, certainly of religious self-sufficiency. A moral, as well as a 
natural, sea surrounds us; and at once protects and isolates us from 
the world. But this is, of course, in a sense which is comparative, not 
absolute. The electric forces which pervade the Christian atmosphere 
touch us largely, outer barbarians though we be; and they touch us 
increasingly. And a multitude of circumstances make us aware that, 
if we are at least open to criticism as our neighbors, yet we have like 
them a part to play in Christendom, and a broad field to occupy with 
our sympathies, under the guidance of such intelligence as we may 
possess." 

It is interesting to take from Gladstone's own pen some account 
of his position in 1847. He is speaking of the emancipation which 
was effected from the net in which he had been bound on the subject 



io8 GLADSTONE: A BIOGRAPHICAL STUDY. 

of the Church and State, especially on the Irish Church Question. He 
says: 

"In 1846 it was suggested to me that I should oppose a member 
of the newly-formed Government of Lord John Russell. In my reply, 
declining the proposal, I wrote thus to the late Duke of Newcastle: 
'As to the Irish Church, I am not able to go to war with them on the 
ground that they will not pledge themselves to the maintenance of the 
existing appropriation of church property in Ireland.' This, however, 
was a private proceeding. 

"But, early in 1847, Mr. Estcourt announced his resignation of the 
seat he held, amidst universal respect, for the University of Oxford. 
The partiality of friends proposed me as a candidate. The representa- 
tion of the University was, I think, stated by Mr. Canning to be to 
him the most coveted prize of political life. I am not ashamed to own 
that I desired it with almost passionate fondness. For besides all the 
associations it maintained and revived, it was in those days an honor 
not only given without solicitation, but, when once given, not with- 
drawn. The contest was conducted with much activity and some heat. 
I was, naturally enough, challenged as to my opinions on the Estab- 
lished Church of Ireland. My friend Mr. Coleridge, then young, but 
already distinguished, was one of my most active and able supporters. 
He has borne spontaneous testimony, within the last few weeks, to the 
manner in which the challenge was met : 

" 'Gentlemen, I must be permitted — because an attack has been 
made upon Mr. Gladstone, and it has been suggested that his con- 
version to his present principles is recent — to mention what is within 
my own knowledge and experience with regard to him. In 1847, when 
I was just leaving Oxford, I had the great honor of being secretary to 
his first election committee for that university and I well recollect, how, 
upon that occasion, some older and more moderate supporters were 
extremely anxious to draw from him some pledge that he should stand 
by the Irish Church. He distinctly refused to pledge himself to any- 
thing of the kind.' " 

The year 1848 witnessed the agitation in Parliament of the demand 
that the expenditure of the nation should be brought down to the level 



THE CORN LAW AGITATION. 109 

of the nation's receipts. Commerce and manufacturers had suffered, 
and protectionists rejoiced that this was a witness to the truth of their 
theory as to the disaster sure to be brought about by free trade. 
Gladstone and DisraeU found themselves on different sides when Sir 
Robert Peel supported the ministers and when Gladstone defended his 
faith in that financial system which has the income tax as its chief 
feature. Disraeli pretended to be bhnd to the great difficulties under 
which England labored in the distressing condition of affairs in all the 
realm. Cobden outstripped Gladstone himself in his plea for direct 
taxation, and influenced Gladstone greatly in the effort to remove any 
inequalities in the income tax, France, meanwhile, was suffering the 
throes of a revolution. Everywhere in Europe the malcontents, and 
especially the Irish malcontents, who were against the government, 
wherever it was, and whatever it was at that time, seized upon the 
fancy that this might be another French Revolution where the hopes 
of the discontented could at least have full utterance. The acknowl- 
edgment of this feeling simply produced a series of repressive measures 
to which the English Government did not like to resort. There was 
no O'Connell now to advise caution and peace when Ireland became 
violent. The danger of Ireland's rising in bloody rebelHon was met 
by the fear Ireland had at that moment that those who were doing all 
the talking and threatening could not possibly help Ireland, if indeed 
Ireland were to be separated from England. Therefore most of the 
Irish men acquiesced when Mr. Smith O'Brien, the leader of the mal- 
contents, was transported. Constructive and far-sighted, Mr. Gladstone 
labored with Lord John Russell and the Government to bring forward 
measures which were conceived for the purpose of remedying affairs 
in Ireland. It was almost impossible to get the Irish people to hear 
any plan for a gradual relief of suffering, or any kind of improvement 
of the situation save that which could be brought about by separation. 
Lord John Russell said he was helpless. He insisted that the Protest- 
ants of Ireland had the right to an Established Church. He went over 
the obstacles in the way of establishing a Roman Catholic Church in 
the same territory. Lord Russell proposed a bill known as the En- 
cumbered Estates Act, proposing to sell estates that were deeply mort- 



no GLADSTONE: A BIOGRAPHICAL STUDY. 

gaged, and hoping that tenants thereby might be better treated. He 
insisted that the landlords should compensate evicted tenants for im- 
provements they had made, and the member from Oxford stood by him 
in his wish to introduce a clause forbidding any landlord to evict a tenant 
if that tenant had held land under certain conditions and had made 
improvements. Gladstone's Tory friends admonished him that this 
was not to be borne by Oxford. 

It was impossible to keep the revolution of 1848, which shocked 
all Europe, from creating a timidity in the mind of English statesmen- 
ship which expressed itself in English legislation. Chartists had risen 
in England, and the working-classes seemed ready to imitate the 
laborers in the French nation, and they were crying for a people's 
charter, granting them something approaching a republic in England. 
Now, statesmanship had to deal with the English laborer as it had 
failed to deal successfully with the Irish laborer. The influence of the 
Reform Bill of years before had been to broaden the franchise and 
create in the minds of Englishmen the idea of governmental responsi- 
bility. Those who opposed the reform bill had sought such representa- 
tion, even in the first reformed Parliament, as would state the progress 
of popular government. Some of the working classes were greatly 
disappointed in the slender share of benefits which they obtained from 
the reform bill. The indolent and the intelligent united; the clean and 
the unclean fused, and the moral force chartists and the physical force 
chartists confronted English legislation with various principles embody- 
ing the same purpose. For ten years now this agitation had voiced the 
ideas which would have made England a laborer's republic, if they had 
been adopted. 

Mr. Gladstone was not unintelligent of these movements and lent 
his great services to the Government as this scheme proceeded toward 
its wreck. Meantime Lord George Bentinck died, and Gladstone's 
great rival, Disraeli, was recognized as the only leader worthy of the 
attention of his party. 



CHAPTER X. 

THE VALOROUS CHURCHMAN. 

In the decade previous to this date, and especially within the three 
years preceding, Mr. Gladstone's ecclesiastical and literary tendencies led 
him to express his convictions on a variety of subjects, and there is no 
surer way of appreciating the growth of a great man in various ways, 
than by a careful study, such as the size of this volume unhappily will 
not permit us to make, of Mr. Gladstone's literary work in this period. 
Let us confine ourselves to one line of his publications — those on 
church affairs. They show the religious basis of his faith in constitu- 
tional government in England, and this when England's mind was 
confused. Writing of one of his essays thirty-five years after the date 
of its pubHcation, he says: "There is something of a sanguine crudity 
in this essay." He adds: "It must, however, serve as a part of the mater- 
ial history of a critical period which will have finally to be written." The 
period is that of the Oxford movement which the "Edinburgh Review" 
sought to explain in 1838 and again in the year 1843. Gladstone made 
an apology for dealing with the subject, calling it "sacred ground," — a 
phrase he would scarce have used in later life, and he pleaded that the 
"rapid growth of the question in its importance and pressure upon the 
minds of men and the immense moment of its issues," was reason 
enough why he should approach it as he did, "with the deepest impres- 
sion, that in the present condition of church charity founded upon a 
sense of our Christian brotherhood, forbearance, and considerate, fair 
thought, are the very first requisites of a useful discussion of her con- 
cerns, and if we positively offend against this rule, we have thus sup- 
plied at the outset the means of judging us out of our own mouth." 
This somewhat too elaborate statement of a fact which no one would 
question is testimony of the condition of Gladstone's mind at that time, 
and his mental method. He has not been flippant with anything; 

III 



112 GLADSTONE: A BIOGRAPHICAL STUDY. 

scarcely has he had a Hght touch for any subject: he began hfe seriously 
and he has lived seriously while thinking on all subjects with equal in- 
tensity and care. Gladstone never coujd think of the Oxford move- 
ment which influenced him, as "little more than a feeble, casual and 
desultory effort of the enthusiasm or caprice of a small knot of persons." 
This was the "Edinburgh Review's" estimate of it, but it is given in 
Gladstone's language. The latter is quite excited as he thinks that 
people such as read the "Edinburgh Review" may underestimate the 
testimony "afforded to the magnitude in which the subject now pre- 
sents itself to the public eye, to its comprehensive range, and the search- 
ing nature of its influences." Gladstone gravely says: "The stone has 
grown into a rock, if not a mountain. In places and in pubhcations, 
usually the most abhorrent of religious discussion, force of circum- 
stances has compelled the discussion of some notice of these contro- 
versies." Here we see the Gladstone of 1843. He is delighted that, 

"on several occasions during the past year, while the Factory Edu- 
cation clauses were before the House of Commons, the increasing 
prevalence of Catholic sentiments in the Church, has formed a prom- 
inent topic in the debates of that assembly; the lower organs of the press 
are loud, and of course extravagant, in their statements of the progress 
of the contagion; and even the philosophic radicalism of the 'West- 
minster Review' has condescended to notice the matter, with censure 
full of apprehension and alarm." 

It is the Oxford man, unforgetful of the charm of John Henry New- 
man and the others, speaking, when he calls attention to the fact that 
some ten years before "four or five clergymen of the University of 
Oxford met together, alarmed at the course of Parliamentary legisla- 
tion with respect to the Church, at the very menacing and formidable 
attitude of dissent, in its alliance with Liberalism, and at the dis- 
position manifested in the establishment itself, to tamper with the dis- 
tinctive principles of its formularies." There is a gravity almost humor- 
ous, as we look back from the point of view occupied by the Grand Old 
Man, who marshaled dissenters as he could no other class, upon those 
circumstantial events which he restores to history. Out of those events 
were coming the famous "Tracts for the Times." It is the churchman, 




RICHARD COBDEN 




THE RIGHT HONORABLE LORD MACAULAY 



THE VALOROUS CHURCHMAN. 113 

and the Oxford churchman, and the churchman who after fifty years 
did have the deepest interest in the Pope's opinion of the validity of 
Dean Farrar's ecclesiastical orders, who tells us that the movement had 
no help from "secular power," "Episcopal sentence," "courtly, aristo- 
cratic, or popular influences." He compares the secession with a like 
event in the history of the Scottish Revolution, and he says: "The 
Enghsh Church, put upon her mettle, has shaken off the conventional 
and secular influences which clothes her in an Erastian disguise, and 
has lighted up, with the rapidity of wildfire, the blazing title of Catho- 
licity upon her brow." 

Certainly this is lively writing, even for an advanced English 
churchman. The conclusion of it all is that the Oxford movement 
was "a development from within of something rooted in the mind and 
sense of the Church itself." It was something "not proceeding from 
fortuitous causes, not colored by individual caprice, nor by merely 
individual genius, piety, or learning, but a tribute providentially sup- 
plied to the imperious necessities of the time, whose emphatic language 
sounded in the ears of the English Church, bidding her either to de- 
scend from her high place or else to assert its prerogatives, discharge its 
duties." He adds: 

"It was impossible for her any longer to stand in the public opinion 
upon the grounds of poHtical utility, of national tradition, of an accom- 
modating tone of doctrine, too long and too widely prevalent, which, 
instead of rousing dead consciences like a trumpet, made itself in a 
certain sense agreeable and popular, by humming and lulling into 
deeper slumbers. Administrative abuses, such as non-residents, plurali- 
ties, and the progressive reduction of sacraments and other services, had 
reached a most frightful height; and the progress of reforms, late begun, 
for some time appeared to be so slow, that it was to be feared the scythe 
of the destroyer might overtake them, and remove the abuse and the 
thing abused together. The clergy were, as a body, secular in their 
habits; and, unless in individual instances, had fallen altogether below 
the proper level of their lofty calling, although they continued to be 
much above that of general society." 

Carlyle had called the Church a sham, and Gladstone saw hope in 



114 GLADSTONE: A BIOGRAPHICAL STUDY. 

this movement, which, in 1833, commenced to infuse new hfe by in- 
sisting upon faithfulness to old principles, and thus making the Church 
something else besides a sham. As Gladstone, a few years later, thinks 
of it all, looking back upon the efforts of such saintly men as Dr. Blom- 
field, he says "that something which brought great personal zeal, new 
forms of association into existence alone was valuable." But the 
power which was to save and bless w^as not the old Puritanical scheme 
of the evangelicals. His friend, Mr. Scott, he believes would have 
brought the Church of England closer to John Calvin theologically, 
but the Church wanted something more than a new theological posi- 
tion, and he adds: 

"The popular divinity of thirty years ago, although it had indeed 
many recommendations in comparison with that which it resisted and 
displaced and although it sprang from the vivid reawakening of relig- 
ious instincts and desires, yet did not spring out of, nor stand in har- 
monious relations with those principles which belonged to the consti- 
tution of the Church, and did not avail to secure for those principles, 
and that constitution, their proper place in the Christian system. And 
thus the restorative process, which we rejoice to honor even in its 
crude commencement, was both narrow in its extent, and, what was 
worse, faulty in its quality, because it did not comprehend the elements 
necessary for its own permanent immunity from the deteriorating 
influences," 

Mr. Gladstone could not look upon the Oxford movement but as a 
"link in the great chain of causes and effects, by which the mind of this 
country has now, for half a century and more, been made the subject 
of so remarkable and of so general a religious progression and devel- 
opment." He thought that "to have the smallest share in impelling the 
movement of which we speak, was indeed an honor; to have had a 
greater share in directing it, a surpassing crown; to have marred it by 
temerity or excess, among the heaviest of sorrows." It is no wonder 
that his friends thought him about ready to go with Father Newman, 
but he was too masterful of his own personality to fail here. While 
the Oxford movement w^as, as he said, "the infallible sequel and com- 
plement of the work of religious renovation," the larger movement lay 



THE VALOROUS CHURCHMAN. 115 

in learning its lesson, and, using all its force, perhaps, was to accomplish 
a wider result. It is a terrible indictment which he draws against the 
Church of England of that moment, yet he believes that there is a way 
to be churchly and Christian and thoroughly moral without leaving the 
Church of England and going over to Rome. He talks of the Roman 
Church in excellent words: 

"We are in honor bound to do justice to her antiquity, to the 
benefits which we ourselves received at her hands, to the firmness with 
which she has ever contended in behalf of the Catholic Creeds, to the 
profound and comprehensive wisdom that pervade many of her institu- 
tions, to the high and noble degrees of saintly perfection that have been 
attained within her pale. And yet we are not so to speak as to incur 
the risk of aiding to mislead others by these glowing recitals; as it is 
to be feared we do aid, unless we join with them the most marked and 
definite notice of the frightful evils which deform her system. These, it 
is to be observed, are not merely evils within her pale, but evils which 
she seems to take to her bosom and to cherish there; which have estab- 
lished themselves about the very seat and organs of life, and which 
the better elements of her nature have not energy sufficient to eject. 
The practical withholding or stinting of the Divine Word; the fearful 
tampering with the attribute of God, by extravagant regard to crea- 
tures; the grossness of her purgatorial system, as represented in the 
actually prevailing tone of her authorized and ordinary pastoral teach- 
ing and discipline; the tyranny of her impositions of tenets, not revealed, 
upon the consciences of men; and her schismatical usurpations of the 
rights and claims of other Churches; all these are topics, concerning 
which to speak slightly, is by implication to betray the truth of God, 
and to expose the souls of our brethren to terrific peril." 

It would seem that he had little anticipation here of ever being able 
to do much on any Irish question with the consent of the Roman 
Church. Later on he was still more fearless as he examined the Vatican 
decrees. He appreciated the state of confusion out of which a man 
could utter criticisms of either the Church of England or the Church of 
Rome, and he was willing to agree that something more positive than 
criticism ought to be offered by the critic. He says: 



ii6 GLADSTONE: A BIOGRAPHICAL STUDY. 

"It certainly indicates a state of great moral disorder in the Chris- 
tian world, when individuals without authority bring charges against 
the most extended of Christian Churches, that she tampers with the 
attributes of God by the toleration and the parent encouragement of 
idolatrous regard to creatures. If the accusation is false, no words can 
express its guilt; if it be true, yet still it seems too great a weight for 
the private person to carry, a weapon not intended for his arm to 
wield. Sad is the necessity which requires such things to be said at 
all; sadder yet, if in such modes. He that utters them should at least 
join with the active utterance every sobering and chastening reflection, ' 
that may prevent it from becoming an act of self-glorification." 

Dr. Newman's ninetieth tract is not passed without remark, and 
Gladstone could only mention the lesson which was taught to those who 
would believe the Church of England in her present form to be equal 
to the conflict with evil. He felt that unbelief had cooled the ardor of 
her heart, and he says: 

"Those who argue for the Catholicity of the Church of England 
in all points which relate to her constitution and rites, to her view of 
the Episcopate and the sacraments, found themselves upon the tone of 
her authorized formularies in order to make good their case. But, un- 
doubtedly, there are those within her, and even within the order of her 
priesthood, who do not scruple to assert in some cases so much as that 
the Episcopate, the ministry, and the visible framework of the Church, 
are human institutions; and even in the teeth of the Catechism ap- 
pointed to be taught to all our young persons, that the new birth unto 
righteousness is not the proper inward part of the sacrament of Bap- 
tism, and that the Body and Blood of Christ are not really received 
by the faithful in the holy Eucharist." 

The fact stood out bare and bold that the Catholic Church on the 
one side had actual charge of a large number of human beings, and 
the English Church, on the other side, had lost hold entirely on another 
great section of humanity. For these two churches to enter into com- 
munion was most desirable, but Gladstone was sure that communion 
with the Church of Rome was impossible. He says: 

"Her whole scheme of operations is founded upon her exclusive 



THE VALOROUS CHURCHMAN. 



117 



pretensions, and upon the assertion of tiie illegitimacy of all Churches 
not under her jurisdiction. Everywhere, therefore, in their territories, 
she appears as an intruder and an aggressor; and the admission of her 
supreme control is made by her the first condition of intercourse. In 
fact, it is not a question of communion, but of subjection; and for any 
other Church to acknowledge the present claims of Rome is to disown 
herself, her ow^n acts, her own children, dead as well as living, her 
relation to her Lord. Nor is this any mere point of earthly honor, 
any contest of simple dignity or precedence; in lowering to her the 
fasces, we should admit the practical sway of her dictatorship. We 
should be called on to make those additions to the Catholic and Apos- 
tolic Creed, which she has been bold enough, under Pope Pius IV., to 
attach to it. Or, if she, from charity or policy, would excuse our im- 
mediate adoption of them, the exemption should be one durante bene- 
placito alone, and revocable at her will. Nor do we see what permanent 
guarantee for any, even the smallest, degree of spiritual liberty she could 
furnish, so long as the preposterous claim of infallibility continues to be 
made, as we have seen it recently made in ofificial documents, by the 
incumbent of the Papal See." 

It is astonishing to those of us who live in the sober evening of the 
nineteenth century, after Gladstone's contemporaries, Huxley, Darwin 
and Spencer, have lived and wrought, after others have drawn away 
some of the millinery from apparently sacred objects, to see a man of 
such reasoning capacity in such a gale of excitement about the necessity 
of certain people understanding certain other people about the church 
services and the like. He says: 

"It may be true, that there is at this moment a Romanizing school 
in the Church of England. These are men, who are not content with 
respecting or revering Catholicity in the Church of Rome, but who 
take her, such as she is, in the mass, for a standard of imitation, and 
would have the Church of England made like her, at least so far as 
might be necessary in order to re-establish communion with her. They 
are unable to fix their affections upon the Church of England, such as 
she is in the mass; but, while sincerely respecting and revering the 
Catholicity or vestiges of Catholicity that they find in her, neverthe- 



ii8 GLADSTONE: A BIOGRAPHICAL STUDY. 

less recoil from the anti-Romish elements with which that Catholicity 
is combined, and pay to her, as a whole, a loveless and constrained, even 
if a punctual and conscientious allegiance." 

Surely the Oxonian could not well go further than this. He goes 
trotting on interestingly to the very edge of the brook, and refuses to 
jump. He certainly underestimated the power which other men had 
at that time and their willingness to take the leap. He says: 

"It may be, that the teaching of this school, as it has perhaps already 
helped to produce, so will hereafter from time to time aid in producing, 
defections from the Church of England of erratic and ill-balanced minds ; 
of minds wanting that searching truth of perception, and vigor of deter- 
mination which all times, the times of confusion most especially, re- 
quired. But as to bringing the millions of this Church and nation into 
harmony with actual Rome, in our view, the perversion of Mr. Sibthorp 
and a few more, does not abridge even one inch of the all but immeas- 
urable distance at which if any where within the bounds of possibility, 
such an event is set. We will not allow that there is the minutest symp- 
tom, the faintest or most shadowy indication, of any impression of 
such a kind upon the English mind." 

Newman and Manning and Hope-Scott are names amidst a mul- 
titude of nimble-footed figures, and, withal, high-minded men. Glad- 
stone certainly longed for a spiritual revival. He says: 

"That effort for spiritual revival, of which we have spoken, aims at 
assimilation, not to Rome, but to something quite distinct, something 
higher and better than Rome; to that original of which Rome is a 
mutilated copy, that standard which she seems with us to acknowledge, 
but beneath which we both, though in different degrees and modes, 
have sunk. May we not redeem our own shortcomings without adopt- 
ing hers? The end proposed is that end which this Church acknowl- 
edges; the means employed are, walking in the path of , her ordinances, 
and cherishing the spirit that pervades them. In pursuing such an end, 
by such means, we can only approximate to Rome where she approxi- 
mates, or shall approximate, to truth. We must remove farther and 
farther from her, where she departs from it. And if it be a duty to 



THE VALOROUS CHURCHMAN. 119 

desire and hope for such removal, with surely at least equal earnestness 
should we labor, yearn and pray for such approximation," 

This was the burden of his heart, and no doubt the sincere desire 
of his spirit. At that very time the retraction of Newman from what 
seemed extreme positions taken against Protestantism had compelled 
attention, and many journals reprinted the collection of those very fierce 
attacks which he made upon the evils of Romanism. Gladstone in- 
sisted that his English friends had the right to desire "that he ought 
more exactly to define what he proposes to substitute for Protestantism 
thus withdrawn." The answer to all this ultimately came, and John 
Henry Newman became Father Newman of the Roman Catholic com- 
munion. Gladstone closed his really comprehensive, though, as he 
says, sanguinely crude study of the question, with these words: 

"And now we have done with our mighty theme. The brain almost 
reels at the magnitude of the interests, and therefore of the hazards, 
involved in it. It has been our desire to handle it with a freedom pro- 
portioned to the necessities of the case, but not exceeding them. If 
towards any communion, Protestant or unreformed, towards any per- 
son of whatever station or whatever sentiments, we have entertained 
convictions or uttered language wanting in charity, or respect, we 
acknowledge the heaviness of the fault, and implore pardon. And, 
at least, we cannot draw the curtain upon the sad picture of Christian 
division and dissension, without beseeching the reader to offer up to 
God the fervent prayer, that the afflicting contemplation of such a scene 
may inspire him with the resolution to 'seek peace and ensue it' in 
the vineyard of the Lord on earth; and, if he cannot here enjoy his 
soul's desire, then, that he may be moved by the prevailing discord the 
more manfully to press towards the m.ark for the prize of entering that 
rest, wherein the unclouded presence of God shall enlighten His people, 
and His unity shall enfold them for evermore." 

He had written a fierce indictment against the English Church, and 
a fierce indictment against the Roman Church and State, yet amidst the 
storm and shell against both, men like Newman and Manning were 
passing from one into the other. Gladstone almost alone saw that Eng- 
land was needing a revival of genuine religion. 



CHAPTER XL 
OXFORD'S REPRESENTATIVE. 

In 1849 the Government proposed the repeal of the Navigation laws. 
The commercial interests of England, to which the son of the Liver- 
pool merchant was always attentive, were not the only interests in- 
volved in this discussion. Yet Gladstone's support was most effective, 
and it indicated how clearly he saw at that time that England is the 
home of a seafaring people, and London must be the exchange-place 
of the merchants of the world because of England's position in matters 
affecting shipping. Yet there was more than this in Gladstone's mind. 
He was bound to realize his ideas of making the sea "That great high- 
way of nations, as free to the ships that traverse its bosom as the winds 
that sweep over it." In the same year he presented his argument on the 
question of paying indemnity to those who had lost property in the 
Candian riots. Llere he announced his conviction that "The House 
of Commons has a perfect right to be heard and to be obeyed in im- 
perial concerns." This was the statement of his faith as to the unity of 
the British Empire, and as to the sort of services he would render toward 
consolidating and exalting it. 

While Oxford had returned him by an excellent majority, Mrs. 
Gladstone had felt it necessary for her to take a part in the canvass, 
and now Oxford beheld him, as he grew steadily toward the Liberalism 
whose champion he was to be. Across his triumphs as a debater there 
came a shadow, for in 1850 his little daughter died, and added to that 
shadow was another, which came from the fact that the godfathers of 
his oldest son, Henry Manning and Mr. Hope-Scott, went over to the 
Church of Rome. No biographer has failed to quote at least the con- 
clusion of the letter which Gladstone wrote to his old friend. He said: 

"My Bear Hope: — 

" . . . Affection which is fed by intercourse, and above all, by 
co-operation for sacred ends, has little need of verbal expression, but such 

120 



OXFORD'S REPRESENTATIVE. 121 

expression is deeply ennobling when active relations have changed. It is 
no matter of merit to me to feel strongly on the subject of that change. 
It may be little better than pure selfishness. I have too good reason to 
know what this year has cost me ; and so little hope have I that the places 
now vacant can be filled up for me, that the marked character of these 
events in reference to myself rather teaches me this lesson — the work to 
which I aspired is reserved for other and better men. And if that be the 
Divine will, I so entirely recognize its fitness, that the grief would so far 
be such to me were I alone concerned. The pain, the wounds, and the 
mystery is- this, — that you should have refused the higher vocation you 
had before you. . . . There is one word, and one only, in your letter 
that I do not interpret closely. Separated we are, but I hope and think 
not yet estranged. Were I more estranged I should bear the separation 
better. ... I honor you even in what I think your error. Why, then, 
should my feelings to you alter in anything else? It seems to me as though 
in these fearful times, events were more and more growing too large for 
our puny grasp, and we should the more look for and trust the Divine 
purpose in them, when we find they have wholly passed beyond the reach 
and measure of our own. . . . For the present we have to endure, to 
trust, and to pray that each day may bring its strength with its burden, 
and its lamp for its gloom. Ever yours. with unaltered afifection, 

"W. E. GLADSTONE." 

Gladstone became deeply interested in the subject of the orthodoxy 
of the Church of England, which he thought now to be seriously at- 
tacked. He had defended his position, which favored diplomacy on the 
part of England with the Court at Rome, but he could not look else- 
where than to the Church of England for security in ecclesiastical and 
religious affairs. In the same year he wrote the famous letter to the 
Bishop of London, in which he took the ground that he could not 
support the Privy Council as the last Court of Appeal in religious mat- 
ters, and that the Royal supremacy was consistent with the religious 
activity and hope of the English Church. Gladstone has labored, as a 
genuine revivalist must, for the spiritual life of the religious establish- 
ment. This letter is only an example of his profound interest in these 
subjects. He said in conclusion: 

I find it no part of my duty, my Lord, to idolize the Bishops of 
England and Wales, or to place my conscience in their keeping. I do not 
presume or dare to speculate upon their particular decisions; but I say 



122 GLADSTONE: A BIOGRAPHICAL STUDY. 

that, acting jointly, publicly, solemnly, responsibly, they are the best and 
most natural organs of the judicial office of the Church in matters of 
heresy, and, according to reason, history, and the Constitution, in that 
subject-matter the fittest and safest counsellors of the Crown. 

We should, indeed, have a consolation, the greatest perhaps which 
times of heavy trouble and affliction can afford, in the reduction of the 
whole matter to a short, clear, and simple issue; because such a resolution, 
when once unequivocally made clear by acts, would sum up the whole case 
before the Church to the effect of these words: "You have our decision; 
take your own; choose between the mess of pottage, and the birthright of 
the Bride of Christ." 

Those that are awake might hardly require a voice of such appalling 
clearness; those that sleep, it surely would awaken; of those that would 
not hear, it must be said, "Neither would they hear, though one rose 
from the dead." 

But She that, a stranger and a pilgrim in this world, is wedded to the 
Lord, and lives only in the hope of His Coming, would know her part; 
and while going forth to her work with steady step and bounding heart, 
would look back with deep compassion upon the region she had quitted — 
upon the slumbering millions, no less blind to the Future, than ungrate- 
ful to the Past. 

This is the year in which occurred those memorable debates in the 
House of Commons, "which," as Dean Stanley says, "decided the fate 
of the Universities." He thus writes of the scene to his Oxford friend, 
Jowett: 

"I postponed writing till the debate of last night was .over. 
Marshall, the Proctor, and myself represented the University in the 
Speakers' gallery, and Liddell below the Bar. The Ministerial speeches 
were very feeble, perhaps purposely so, with a view of closing the de- 
bate. Gladstone's was very powerful, and said, in a most effective man- 
ner, anything which could be said against the Commission. His 
allusion to Peel was very touching, and the House responded to it by 
profound and sympathetic silence, with the exception of two M. P.'s, 
who, having been for some time lying head to head in the Members' 
gallery, were roused from repose by the pause, and, hearing what it was, 
exclaimed to one another: 'Balderdash!' 'D d balderdash!' and 



OXFORD'S REPRESENTATIVE. 123 

so to sleep again. Heywood's closing speech was happily drowned in 
the roar of 'Divide,' so that nothing could be heard but the name of 
'Cardinal Wolsey,' thrice repeated. 

"Altogether I confess that I should have been relieved had the ma- 
jority been the other way. Tut not your trust in Prime Ministers' is 
the chief moral I derive from the recent events." 

In 1850 a person named Don Pacifico, a subject of Her Majesty 
living in Athens, was attacked by a mob of Greeks, who looted his 
house. When he appealed to the Greek Government for redress and 
remuneration that Government, perhaps astonished into silence by the 
size of his claim, refused to heed him. The sum of more than 30,000 
pounds was too much for Greece to pay, especially when the belong- 
ings of Don Pacifico were proven to have been of very small value. 
At the same time Lord Palmerston was having another quarrel wath 
Greece, the noble lord taking the part of an English resident in Athens, 
and contending that the government there would not pay him proper 
compensation for some land they had taken. Some of the Ionian sub- 
jects of Great Britain made a complaint that they had been illy treated. 
It was enough for Palmerston. He inaugurated what England has 
heard of as "a spirited foreign policy." The British fleet soon seized all 
Greek shipping found in the harbor of the Piraeus. Palmerston flew into 
a fury at the thought that France had interfered in the affair, and the 
House of Commons was called on to act. To the debate Palmerston 
made a contribution- five hours' long, in which he referred to the 
Roman phrase: "Civis Romanus," and he transferred all its boasting- 
jingoism to the lips of England. Gladstone's peace-loving mind, 
steadily acting under the dominion of just principles, sought to change 
the course of things by a masterly speech, in which he said: 

"Sir, great as is the influence and power of Britain, she cannot afford 
to follow, for any length of time, a self-isolating policy. It would be 
a contravention of the law of nature and of God, if it were possible for 
any single nation of Christendom to emancipate itself from the obliga- 
tions which bind all other nations, and to arrogate, in the face of man- 
kind, a position of peculiar privilege. And now I will grapple with the 
noble lord on the ground which he selected for himself, in the most tri- 



124 GLADSTONE: A BIOGRAPHICAL STUDY. 

umphant portion of his speech, by his reference to those emphatic words, 
'Civis Romanus sum.' He vaunted, amidst the cheers of his supporters, 
that under his Administration an Englishman should be, throughout 
the world, what the citizen of Rome had been. What, then, sir, was a 
Roman citizen? He was the member of a privileged caste; he belonged 
to a conquering race, to a nation that held all others bound down by 
the strong arm of power. For him there was to be an exceptional sys- 
tem of law; for him principles were to be asserted, and by him rights 
were to be enjoyed, that were denied to the rest of the world. Is such, 
then, the view of the noble lord as to the relation which is to subsist be- 
tween England and other countries? Does he make the claim for us 
that we are to be uplifted upon a platform high above the standing- 
ground of all other nations? It is, indeed, too clear, not only from the 
expressions but from the whole tone of the speech of the noble viscount, 
that too much of this notion is lurking in his mind; that he adopts, in 
part, that vain conception that we, forsooth, have a mission to be the 
censors of vice and folly, of abuse and imperfection, among the other 
countries of the world; that we are to be the universal schoolmasters; 
and that all those who hesitate to recognize our office can be governed 
only by prejudice or personal animosity, and should have the blind war 
of diplomacy forthwith declared against them. And certainly, if the 
business of a Foreign Secretary properly were to carry on diplomatic 
wars, all must admit that the noble lord is a master in the discharge of 
his functions. What, sir, ought a Foreign Secretary to be? Is he to 
be like some gallant knight at a tournament of old, pricking forth into 
the lists, armed at all points, confiding in his sinews and his skill, chal- 
lenging all comers for the sake of honor, and having no other duty 
than to lay as many as possible of his adversaries sprawling in the dust? 
If such is the idea of a good Foreign Secretary, I, for one, would vote 
to the noble lord his present appointment for his Hfe. But, sir, I do not 
understand the duty of a Secretary for Foreign Affairs to be of such 
a character. I understand it to be his duty to conciliate peace with 
dignity. I think it to be the very first of all his duties studiously to ob- 
serve, and to exalt in honor among mankind, that great code of princi- 
ples which Is termed the law of nations, which the learned and honor- 



OXFORD'S REPRESENTATIVE. 125 

able member for Sheffield has found, indeed, to be very vague in their 
nature, and greatly dependent on the discretion of each particular coun- 
try, but in which I find, on the contrary, a great and noble monument of 
human wisdom, founded on the combined dictates of reason and ex- 
perience, a precious inheritance bequeathed to us by the generations 
that have gone before us, and a firm foundation on which we must take 
care to build whatever it may be our part to add to their acquisitions, 
if indeed, we wish to maintain and to consolidate the brotherhood of 
nations and to promote the peace and welfare of the world. 

"Sir, I say the policy of the noble lord tends to encourage and con- 
firm in us that which is our besetting fault and weakness, both as a na- 
tion and as individuals. Let an Englishman travel where he will as a 
private person, he is found in general to be upright, high-minded, brave, 
liberal and true; but, with all this, foreigners are too often sensible of 
something that galls them in his presence, and I apprehend it is because 
he has too great a tendency to self-esteem — too little disposition to 
regard the feelings, the habits, and the ideas of others. Sir, I find 
this characteristic too plainly legible in the policy of the noble lord. I 
doubt not that use will be made of our present debate to work upon this 
peculiar weakness of the English mind. The people will be told that 
those who oppose the motion are governed by personal motives, have 
no regard for public principles, no enlarged ideas of national policy. 
You will take your case before a favorable jury, and you think to 
gain your verdict, but, sir, let the House of Commons be w^arned — 
let it warn itself — against all illusions. There is in this case also a course 
of appeal. There is an appeal, such as the honorable and learned mem- 
ber for Sheffield has made, from the one House of Parliament to the 
other. There is a further appeal from this House of Parliament to the 
people of England; but lastly, there is also an ap])ea] from the people 
.of England to the general sentiment of the civilized world, and I, for 
my part, am of opinion that England will stand shorn of a chief part of 
her glory and pride if she shall be found to have separated herself, 
through the policy she pursues abroad, from the moral support which 
the general and fixed convictions of mankind afford — if the day shall 



126 GLADSTONE: A BIOGRAPHICAL STUDY. 

come when she may continue to excite the wonder and the fear of other 
nations, but in which she shall have no part in their aiTection and regard. 

"No, sir, let it not be so; let us recognize, and recognize with frank- 
ness, the equality of the weak with the strong, the principles of brother- 
hood among nations, and of their sacred independence. When we are 
asking for the maintenance of the rights which belong to our fellow- 
subjects resident in Greece, let us do as we would be done by, and let 
us pay all respect to a feeble State, and to the infancy of free institutions, 
which we should desire and should exact from others towards their 
maturity and their strength. Let us refrain from all gratuitous and 
arbitrary meddling in the internal concerns of other States, even as 
we should resent the same interference if it were attempted to be prac- 
ticed towards ourselves. If the noble lord has indeed acted on these 
principles, let the Government to which he belongs have your verdict 
in its favor, but if he has departed from them, as I contend, and as I 
humbly think and urge upon you that it has been too amply proved, 
then the House of Commons must not shrink from the performance of 
its duty under whatever expectations of momentary obloquy or re- 
proach, because we shall have done what is right; we shall enjoy the 
peace of our own consciences, and receive, whether a little sooner or 
a little later, the approval of the public voice for having entered our 
solemn protest against a system of policy which we believe, nay, which 
we know, whatever may be its first aspect, must, of necessity, in its 
final results be unfavorable even to the security of British subjects 
resident abroad, which it professes so much to study — unfavorable to 
the dignity of the country, which the motion of the honorable and 
learned member asserts it preserves — and equally unfavorable to that 
other great and sacred object, which also it suggests to our recollec- 
tion, the maintenance of peace with the nations of the world," 

But Lord Palmerston's project was carried by a majority of forty-six. 

Gladstone suffered an immeasurable loss, as did England, in the 
death of Sir Robert Peel, who received fatal injuries in being thrown' 
from his horse, on June 29th. Speaking in the House of Commons 
Gladstone said: 

"I am quite sure that every heart is much too full to allow us, at a 



OXFORD'S REPRESENTATIVE. 127 

period so early, to enter upon a consideration the amount of that 
calamity with which the country has been visited in his, I must even 
say, premature death; for though he has died full of years and full of 
honors, yet it is a death which our human eyes will regard as pre- 
mature; because we had fondly hoped that, in whatever position he was 
placed, by the weight of his character, by the splendor of his talents, 
by the purity of his virtues, he would still have been spared to render to 
his country the most essential services. I will only, sir, quote those 
most touching and feeling lines which were applied by one of the great 
poets of this country to the memory of a man great indeed, but yet not 
greater than Sir Robert Peel: 

" 'Now is the stately column broke, 
The beacon light is quenched in smoke 
The trumpet's silver voice is still 
The warder silent on the hill.' 

"Sir, I will add no more — in saying this I have, perhaps, said too 
much. It might have been better had I simply confined myself to sec- 
onding the motion. I am sure the tribute of respect which we now offer 
will be all the more valuable from the silence with which the motion 
is received, and which I well know has not arisen from the want, but 
from the excess, of feeling on the part of this House!" 

In his letter to the Bishop of London on the Royal Supremacy, 
Gladstone took the highest ground of loyalty to the King or Queen 
in Church afifairs. He said: 

"The trust reposed by the Constitution in the King with respect 
to civil purposes was this: that he would commonly act in the spirit 
of the Constitution, and would avail himself of the best assistance which 
the country might afford for ascertaining, fostering, and upholding that 
spirit, and for detailing according to its dictates with pubhc exigencies 
as they should arise. And this trust was a trust not speculative only, 
but accompanied with practical safeguards. They were these in par- 
ticular; that for making laws the Sovereign must act with the advice 
and consent of the estates of the realm; and that, for administering 
them, he would act by and through the persons who had made the laws 



128 GLADSTONE: A BIOGRAPHICAL STUDY. 

the study and business of their Hves, and who would be best able to in- 
terpret them according to their own general spirit, and to the analogies 
which the spirit supplied as well as to the mere precedents which its 
history afforded. I speak of the constitutional system, which was in 
course of being gradually elaborated and matured in England. Its 
essential features had for many generations exercised a marked influ- 
ence over the fortunes of the country, and in time they attained such a 
ripeness, as to place both our legislative and judicial systems beyond 
the reach of the arbitrary will, or the personal caprice, of Sovereigns. 

"Now, I say, that the intention of the reformation, taken generally, 
was to place our religious liberties on a footing analogous to that on 
which our civil liberties had long stood. A supremacy of power in mak- 
ing and administering Church law as well as State law was to vest in the 
Sovereign; but in making Church law^ he was to ratify the acts of the 
Church herself, represented in Convocation, and if there were need of 
the highest civil sanctions, then to have the aid of Parliament also. In 
administering Church law, he was to discharge this function through 
the medium of Bishops and divines. Canonists and civilians, as her own 
most fully authorized, best instructed sons following in each case the 
analogy of his ordinary procedure as head of the State." 

Referring to the compact between Sovereign and subjects, he said 
also: 

"The ancient idea of compact had never been extinguished; and 
upon an adequate occasion, namely, at the Revolution, it was reani- 
mated, in terms indeed open to dispute, but in substance with a sol- 
emnity and weight of sanction which It has never lost. Now this great 
and fundamental idea of compact, if it applies to individual subjects, 
applies also yet more formally to the Estates of the realm, and involves 
more than the mere personal conduct of the Sovereign. If the tenure 
of the throne itself depends upon the observance of a compact, much 
more does every other relation that binds together the several com- 
ponent parts of the body politic, in its several orders and degrees of 
men, as spirituality and temporality." 

Gladstone's famous pamphlet on the Royal Supremacy was attract- 
ing greatest attention. His shrewdest critics have proven to his most 




PALMERSTON 





QUEEN VICTORIA 



OXFORD'S REPRESENTATIVE. 129 

loyal admirers that here is furnished perhaps the most conspicuous 
illustration of that habit of mind, which, in affairs of more importance 
than this, has operated to confuse rather than guide plain people in 
search of truth in its simplicity or facts in their completeness. Bagehot 
wrote: 

"For the purpose of this case, it was of the last importance to deter- 
mine the exact position of the Crown with respect to ecclesiastical 
afifairs, and especially to the offense of heresy. The law at first seems 
distinct enough on the matter. The ist of Elizabeth provides 'that 
such jurisdictions, privileges, superiorities and pre-eminences, spiritual 
and ecclesiastical, as by any spiritual or ecclesiastical power or authority 
hath heretofore been or may lawfully be exercised or used for the 
visitation of the ecclesiastical state and persons, and for reformation, 
order and correction of the same, and of all manner of errors, heresies, 
schisms, abuses, offenses, contempts and enormities, shall forever, by 
authority of this present parliament, be united and annexed to the 
imperial Crown of this realm.' These words would have seemed dis- 
tinct and clear to most persons. They would have seemed to give to 
the Crown all the power it could wish to exercise — all that any spiritual 
authority had ever 'theretofore exercised' — all that any temporal 
authority could ever use. We should think it was clear Queen Eliza- 
beth would have applied a rather summary method of instruction to 
any one who attempted to limit the jurisdiction conferred by this en- 
actment. If Mr. Gladstone had lived in the times about which he was 
writing, he might have had to make a choice between being silent and 
being punished; but in the times of Queen Victoria he is not subject 
to an alternative so painful. He writes securely: 

'We have now before us the terms of the great statute which from 
the time it was passed, has been the actual basis of the royal authority in 
matters ecclesiastical; and 1 do not load these pages by reference to dec- 
larations of the Crown, and other public documents less in authority than 
this, in order that we may fix our view the more closely upon the expres- 
sions of what may fairly be termed a fundamental law in relation to the 
subject matter before us. 

'The first observation I make is this: There is no evidence in the 
words which have been quoted that the Sovereign is, according to the in- 
9 



130 GLADSTONE: A BIOGRAPHICAL STUDY. 

tention of the statute, the source or fountain-head of ecclesiastical jurisdic- 
tion. They have no trace of such a meaning, in so far as it exceeds (and it 
does exceed) the proposition, that this jurisdiction has been by law united 
or annexed to the Crown. 

T do not now ask what have been the glosses of lawyers — what are 
the reproaches of . polemical writers — or even what attributes may be 
ascribed to prerogative, independent of statute, and therefore applicable to 
the Church before as well as after the reformation. I must for the purposes 
of this argument assume what I shall never cease to believe until the con- 
trary conclusion is demonstrated by fact, namely, that, in the case of the 
Church, justice is to be administered from the English bench upon the 
same principles as in all other cases — that our judges, or our judicial com- 
mittees, are not to be our legislators — and that the statutes of the realm, 
as they are above the sacred majesty of the Queen, so are likewise above 
their ministerial interpreters. It was by statutes that the changes in the 
position of the Church at that great epoch were measured — by statute that 
the position itself is defined; and the statute, I say, contains no trace of 
such a meaning as that the Crown either originally was the source and 
spring of ecclesiastical jurisdiction, or was to become such in virtue of the 
annexation to it of the powers recited; but simply bears the meaning, 
that it was to be master over its administration.' 

So that which seems a despotism is gradually pruned down into a 
vicegerency. "All the superiorities and pre-eminences spiritual and 
ecclesiastical," which had ever been lawfully exercised, are restricted 
to the single function of regulation; and by a judicious elaboration the 
Crown becomes scarcely the head of the Church, but only the visitor 
and corrector of it, as of several other corporations. We are not now 
concerned with the royal supremacy — we have no wish to hint or to 
intimate an opinion on a vast legal discussion; but we are concerned 
with Mr. Gladstone. And we venture to say that a subtler gloss, more 
scholastically expressed, never fell from lawyer in the present age, or 
from schoolmen in times of old." 

We see in this only the necessary witness made by a man of Glad- 
stone's temperament that, in progress of all kinds, the old bark does 
not fall off entirely until new bark forces it ofif from beneath. 



CHAPTER XII. 
THE NEAPOLITAN OUTRAGES. 

In the course of the winter of 1850-51, Gladstone, yielding to a 
necessity brought about by the illness of one of his children, visited 
Naples, and spent nearly four months in that city. Here was a citizen 
of the world whose heart heard the cry of humanity as he saw seventy 
of the hundred and forty Deputies of the Chamber arrested or sent 
into exile, and more than 20,000 offenders against a base policy im- 
prisoned under an indictment which meant their death. He hastened to 
the charge, and addressed an historical letter to his friend. Lord Aber- 
deen, in England, in which he said: 

"It is not mere imperfection, not corruption in low quarters, not 
occasional severity, that I am about to describe; it is incessant, sys- 
tematic, deliberate violation of the law by the Power appointed to 
watch over and maintain it. It is such violation of human and written 
law as this, carried on for the purpose of violating every other law, un- 
written and eternal, human and divine; it is the wholesale persecution 
of virtue when united with intelligence, operating upon such a scale that 
entire classes may with truth be said to be its object, so that the Gov- 
ernment is in bitter and cruel, as well as utterly illegal, hostility to what- 
ever in the nation really lives and moves, and forms the mainspring 
of practical progress and improvement; it is the awful profanation 'of 
public religion, by its notorious alliance, in the governing powers, with 
the violation of every moral law under the stimulants of fear and ven- 
geance; it is the perfect prostitution of the judicial office, which has 
made it, under veils only too threadbare and transparent, the degraded 
recipient of the vilest and clumsiest forgeries got up wilfully and delib- 
erately, by the immediate advisers of the Crown, for the purpose of 
destroying the peace, the freedom, ay, and even if not by capital sen- 
tences the life, of men among the most virtuous, upright, intelligent, 

131 



132 GLADSTONE: A BIOGRAPHICAL STUDY. 

distinguished, and refined of the whole community: it is the savage 
and cowardly system of moral, as well as in a lower degree of physical, 
torture through which the sentences extracted from the debased courts 
of justice are carried into efifect. The effect of all this is, total inversion 
of all the moral and social ideas. Law, instead of being respected, is 
odious. Force, and not affection, is the foundation of Government. 
There is not association, but a violent antagonism, between the idea 
of freedom and that of order. The governing power, which teaches of 
itself that it is the image of God upon earth, is clothed, in the view of 
the overwhelming majority of the thinking public, with all the vices 
for its attributes. I have seen and heard the strong and too true expres- 
sion used, 'This is the negation of God erected into a system of Govern- 
ment.' " 

He said in his reply to the criticism of his letter from Naples: 
"I express the hope that while there is time, while there is quiet, 
while dignity may yet be saved in showing mercy, and in the blessed 
work of restoring Justice to her seat, the Government of Naples may 
set its hand in earnest to work of real and searching, however quiet 
and unostentatious, reform; that it may not become unavoidable to 
reiterate these appeals from the hand of power to the one common heart 
of mankind; to produce those painful documents, those harrowing 
descriptions, which might be supplied in rank abundance, of which I 
have scarcely given the faintest idea or sketch, and which, if they 
were laid from time to time before the world, would bear down like a 
deluge every effort at apology or palliation, and would cause all that 
has recently been made known to be forgotten and eclipsed in deeper 
horrors yet; lest the strength of offended and indignant humanity 
should rise up as a giant refreshed with wine, and, while sweeping away 
these abominations from the eye of Heaven, should sweep away along 
with them things pure and honest, ancient, venerable, salutary to man- 
kind, crowned with the glories of the past, and still capable of bearing 
future fruit." 

He added: "The principle of conservation and the principle of prog- 
ress are both sound in themselves; they have ever existed and must ever 
exist together in European society, in qualified opposition, but in vital 



THE NEAPOLITAN OUTRAGES. 133 

harmony and concurrence; and for each of those principles it is a mat- 
ter of deep and essential concern, that iniquities committed under the 
shelter of its name should be stripped of that shelter. Most of all is this 
the case where iniquity, towering on high, usurps the name and author- 
ity of that Heaven to which it lifts its head, and wears the double mask 
of Order and of Religion. Nor has it ever fallen to my lot to perform 
an office so truly conservative, as in the endeavor I have made to shut 
and mark off from the sacred cause of Government in general, a system 
which I believe was bringing the name and idea of Government into 
shame and hatred, and converting the thing from a necessity and a 
blessing into a sheer curse to human kind." — Reply to the Neapolitan 
Government, 1852. 

Too little, at all events, but the most Gladstone could do, was done, 
and the horrible truth had been revealed in all its ghastliness. Cavour 
was working night and day for the unification of Italy, and the ex- 
pulsion of Ferdinand II. was most desired. Lord John Russell had 
introduced the Ecclesiastical Titles Bill. The Roman Pontiff had 
issued an order creating a Roman Hierarchy in England. Protest- 
antism revolted against what certainly appeared to be an attack upon 
their faith. The Pope had practically abolished the Church of England, 
so far as its authority and its position were concerned. Her Majesty's 
place as the potentate of England appeared to be a thing of no im.- 
portance to His Holiness. The country was one wild scene of excite- 
ment. Lord John Russell urged his measure forbidding the Pope to 
constitute Roman Catholic bishops in England, according to the new 
map which the Vatican had invented. But Lord John Russell had 
gone too far. In his intemperate attack, he had denounced the High 
Church party as the ally of Rome. Disraeli directed his fiery scorn 
against the Bill, and Mr. Gladstone condemned it unsparingly. The 
Bill pleased nobody but the author, many good people blaming it for 
its concessions to Rome, others opposing it because it appeared to be 
an expedient violating religious liberty. When it passed finally, its 
agency was moribund. Twenty years after, under Gladstone, it was 
repealed. 



CHAPTER XIII. 
PALMERSTON OVERTHROWN. 

The Government now was becoming unpopular. Lord Palmerston's 
policy had done only what a jingo policy can do for any countr}'- 
which adopts it. Of course, it failed to maintain the honor of England. 
Palmerston had become unmanageable and neglectful of his duties 
toward Her Majesty, while at the same time he had left on record of 
his willingness to connive with Louis Napoleon, who suddenly made 
himself Emperor of the French. When this was discovered, Palmerston 
had to go as Foreign Minister. The Queen called upon Lord Stanley 
and Lord Aberdeen, but both declined to constitute a Government. 
At last the Derby-Disraeli Cabinet was formed, the latter becoming 
Chancellor of the Exchequer and Leader of the House of Commons. 

Disraeli introduced a Budget intended to bridge over the stream 
which was flowing rapidly and dangerously against their Government. 
Parliament was dissolved on July ist, and Gladstone came back from 
Oxford with an increased majority. Now Disraeli introduced a Budget 
which he and his friends had pronounced a masterpiece. Lord Palmers- 
ton was out of the way, having had a delicious revenge when the Bill 
for the reorganization of the militia, as against France, was up, and 
he helped the Tories to defeat the Government which had dropped him. 
But the Government, and especially Mr. Disraeli, had a contest on hand 
of large proportions. Disraeli was able to meet manifold criticism of his 
Budget, and destroy or conceal it, for the most part, with his bursting 
fusilade of brilliant utterance and his steady fire of scorching sarcasm. 
He was simply exhibiting the sword with which he was about to enter 
into a lifelong duel with William E. Gladstone. 

Gladstone arose at a moment when Disraeli's audacious utterance 
had clearly intimidated the House. His reply was perhaps the least 
apparently prepared speech he ever made, but, in point of fact, the 

134 



PALMERSTON OVERTHROWN. 135 

preparation of all his preceding years showed in the sinewy strength 
and resistless onset furnished by his unpremeditated sentences. In 
twenty minutes, the House of Commons, which had previously been 
cowed under the haughty demeanor of Disraeli, rose to cheer Gladstone, 
and the tumult of applause which broke in upon his fervid reply reached 
t*he streets outside the building. Disraeli and his government were 
defeated by nineteen votes. Soon the Queen received the announce- 
ment from Lord Derby, and the latter went to Osborne with his resig- 
nation. England was in a state of frenzied excitement. Gladstone's 
name was the one name heard everywhere, and the middle classes of 
England believed that the fame of William Pitt was to be eclipsed 
by this new finance-minister. On the other hand, Gladstone was at- 
tacked by a ruffianly crowd at the Carlton Club. Mr. Greville says 
of these criminals who had no other effective instrumentalities but their 
knuckles, "After dinner, when they got drunk, they went up stairs and 
finding Gladstone alone in the drawing-room, some of them proposed 
to throw him out of the window. This they did not quite dare do, 
but contented themselves with giving some insulting message or order 
to the waiter, and then went away." 

Lord Aberdeen, who became Prime Minister, made Gladstone 
Chancellor of the Exchequer, and Gladstone found at his side his 
excellent friends. Sir James Graham and Sidney Herbert. But the 
Chancellor could no longer count upon the enthusiastic support of 
Oxford. Lord Derby had been elected Chancellor of the University, 
and the Oxford constituency felt that Gladstone was becoming a 
Liberal. He fought inch by inch during the canvass, and after the 
poll had been kept open for fifteen days and every effort had been 
made to defeat him, he was returned, with the idea in his own mind 
certainly that Oxford would not care for his services in some not far- 
away future. He presented his first Budget. Months before the Duke 
of Wellington had died, and his death had drawn from Gladstone a 
fine eulogium. 

"While many of the actions of his life," said the speaker, "while 
many of the qualities he possessed are unattainable by others, there 
are lessons which we may all derive from the life and actions of that 



136 GLADSTONE: A BIOGRAPHICAL STUDY. 

illustrious man. It may never be given to another subject of the 
British Crown to perform services so brilliant as he performed; it 
may never be given to another man to hold the sword which was to 
gain the independence of Europe, to rally the nations around it, and 
while England saved herself by her constancy, to save Europe by her 
example; it may never be given to another man, after having attained' 
such eminence, after such an unexampled series of victories, to show 
equal moderation in peace as he has shown greatness in war, and to 
devote the remainder of his life to the cause of external and internal 
peace for that country which he has so served; it may never be given 
to another man to have equal authority both with the Sovereign he 
served, and with the Senate of which he was to the end a venerated 
member; it may never be given to another man, after such a career, 
to preserve even to the last the full possession of those great faculties 
with which he was endowed, and to carry on the services of one of the 
most important departments of the State with unexampled regularity 
and success, even to the latest day of his life. These are circumstances, 
these are qualities, which may never occur again in the history of this 
country. But there are qualities which the Duke of Wellington dis- 
played, of which we may all act in humble imitation: that sincere and 
unceasing devotion to our country; that honest and upright determi- 
nation to act for the benefit of the country on every occasion; that 
devoted loyalty, which, while it made him ever anxious to serve the 
Crown, never induced him to conceal from his Sovereign that which 
he believed to be the truth; that devotedness in the constant per- 
formance of duty; that temperance of his hfe which enabled him at all 
times to give his mind and his faculties to the services which he was 
called on to perform; that regular, consistent, and unceasing piety 
by which he was distinguished at all times in his life; these are qualities 
that are attainable by others, and should not be lost as an example." 

Gladstone's Budget was offered for the consideration of the House 
April 18, 1853. It was a marvel of sound statesmanship, and it was 
witness to the fact that Gladstone's sympathy was with the classes 
who had hitherto found life difficult of support in England. Onerous 
taxes were remitted, arbitrary charges on ordinary business, on loco- 



PALMERSTON OVERTHROWN. 137 

motion, on postal facilities, on things usually needed for the support 
of everyday life, were removed. He proposed to meet any deficiency 
by increasing the duty on spirits, extending the Income Tax, and 
putting a Legacy Duty on real property. He had clearly deserted the 
privileged few and gone over to the side of the toiling many. Five 
million pounds of custom and excise duties were ruthlessly removed, 
and the fortunate were asked to bear burdens with the unfortunate, 
in all the realm. If Gladstone had ever shown genuine political power, 
it was reserved for this occasion to give it its noblest exhibition. 

No man has ever so charmingly elucidated the tortuous ways in 
which facts hide themselves in figures as has Gladstone. For those 
five hours, he illumined long fiscal statements, and a surprising mass of 
dry fiscal details, having to do with all sorts of usually uninteresting 
subjects, with the light of his genius. He never for a moment sulifered 
the attention of the House to flag, while his picturesque sentences 
carried into the mind of the dullest hearer his own clear view of the 
great and complex plan. No description of it is so worthy as some 
extracts from the speech itself. He said this on the Income Tax: 

"If the Committee have followed me, they will understand that we 
stand on the principle that the Income Tax ought to be marked as a 
temporary measure: that the public feeling that relief should be given 
to intelligence and skill as compared with property ought to be met, 
and may be met; that the Income Tax in its operation ought to be 
mitigated by every rational means, compatible, with its integrity; and, 
above all, that it should be associated in the last term of its existence, 
as it was in the first, with those remissions of indirect taxation which 
have so greatly redounded to the profit of this country, and have set 
so admirable an example — an example that has already in some quarters 
proved contagious to other nations of the earth. These are the prin- 
ciples on which we stand, and the figures. I have shown you that 
if you grant us the taxes which we ask, the moderate amount of £2,500,- 
000 in the whole, and much less than that sum for the present year, 
you, or the Parliament which may be in existence in i860, will be in 
the condition, if you so think lit, to part with the Income Tax. I am 
almost afraid to look at the clock, shamefully reminding me, as it must. 



138 GLADSTONE: A BIOGRAPHICAL STUDY. 

how long I have trespassed on the time of the House. All I can say 
in apology is that I have endeavored to keep closely to the topics which 
I had before me — 

— immensum spatiis confecimus seqiior, 
Et jam tempus equum fumantia solvere colla." 

He then added in conclusion: 

''These are the proposals of the Government. They may be approved 
or they may be condemned, but I have this full confidence that it will 
be admitted that we have not sought to evade the difficulties of the 
position; that we have not concealed those difficulties either from our- 
selves of from others; that we have not attempted to counteract them 
by narrow or flimsy expedients; that we have prepared plans, which, 
if you will adopt them, will go some way to close up many vexed finan- 
cial questions, which, if not settled now, may be attended with public 
inconvenience, and even with public danger, in future years and under 
less favorable circumstances; that we have endeavored, in the plans 
that we have now submitted to you, to make the path of our successors 
in future years not more arduous but more easy; and I may be per- 
mitted to add that, while we sought to do justice to the great labor 
community of England by furthering their relief from indirect taxation, 
we have not been guided by any desire to put one class against another. 
We have felt that we should best maintain our own honor, that we 
should best meet the views of Parliament, and best promote the inter- 
ests of the country, by declining to draw any invidious distinction be- 
tween class and class, by adopting it to ourselves as a sacred aim to 
diffuse and distribute the burdens with equal and impartial hand; and 
we have the consolation of believing that by proposals such as these 
we contribute, as far as in us lies, not only to develop the material re- 
sources of the country, but to knit the various parts of this great nation 
yet more closely than ever to that Throne, and to those institutions 
under which it is our happiness to live." 

Greville speaks of some matters of minor importance which oc- 
curred at this time, and then says, under date of April 21, 1853: 
' "These little battles were, however, of little moment compared 



PALMERSTON OVERTHROWN. 139 

with the great event of Gladstone's Budget, which came off on Monday 
night. He had kept his secret so well, that nobody had the least idea 
what it was to be, only it oozed out that the Income Tax was not to 
be differentiated. He spoke for five hours, and by universal consent 
it was one of the grandest displays and most able financial statements 
that ever was heard in the House of Commons; a great scheme, boldly, 
skillfully, and honestly devised, disdaining popular clamor and pressure 
from without, and the execution of its absolute perfection. Even those 
who do not admire the Budget, or who are injured by it, admit 
the merit of the performance. It has raised Gladstone to a great po- 
litical elevation, and, what is of far greater consequence than the 
measure itself, has given the country assurance of a man equal to great 
political necessities, and fit to lead parties and direct governments. 

"April 22d: I met Gladstone last night, and had the pleasure of 
congratulating him and his wife, which I did with great sincerity, for 
his success is a public benefit. They have been overwhelmed with com- 
pliments and congratulations. Prince Albert and the Queen both 
wrote to him, and John Russell, who is spitefully reported to have 
been jealous, has, on the contrary, shown the warmest interest and 
satisfaction in his success. The only one of his colleagues who may 
have been mortified is Charles Wood, who must have compared Glad- 
stone's triumph with his own failures. From all one can see at present 
it promises certain success, though many parts of the Budget are 
caviled at. It will be difificult, if not impossible, to find any common 
ground on which Radicals or Irish can join the Derbyites to over- 
throw it, and the sanguine expectations which the latter have been 
entertaining for some time, of putting the Government into some in- 
explicable fix, have given way to perplexity and despondency; and 
they evidently do not know what to do, nor how to give effect to 
their rancor and spite. Lord Derby had a great meeting not many 
days ago, at which he recommended union, and cheered them in oppo- 
sition, of course, for form's sake, talking of moderation and principles, 
neither of which he cares a fig for. Mischief and confusion, vengeance 
against the coalition, and taking the chance of what may happen next, 
are all that he and Disraeli are bent upon. I met the latter worthy in 
10 



I40 GLADSTONE: A BIOGRAPHICAL STUDY. 

the street just before the Budget, a day or two previous. He asked 
me what I thought of the state of affairs, and I told him I thought 
it very unpleasant, and it seemed next to impossible to carry on the 
Government' at all, everybody running riot in the House of Commons, 
and following his own fancies and crotchets; nor did I see how it 
could be otherwise in the present state of parties and the country; 
that since Peel's administration, which was a strong Government, there 
had been and apparently there could be none. The present Government 
was not strong, and they were perpetually defeated, on minor points, 
indeed, but in a way that showed they had no power to work through 
Parliament. I said of course they would dissolve if this continued, but 
that Gladstone's Budget might make a difference one way or the other. 
DisraeH scouted the idea of a dissolution, by which, he said, they would 
certainly gain nothing. Why, he asked, did not the Peelites join us 
again? As I don't want to quarrel with anybody, I restrained what 
was on my lips to say — 'You could not possibly expect them to join 
you' — but I did tell him that, even if the present Government could 
not maintain itself, of all impossible things the most impossible was the 
restoration of his Government tale quale, to which he made no reply. 
To be sure, the Protectionist seceders from Peel have now drunk the 
cup of mortification, disgrace, and disaster to the very dregs. They 
are a factious and (as I hope) impotent Opposition, under the un- 
prinoipled guidance of men, who, clever and plausible though they be, 
are totally destitute of wisdom, sincerity, and truth. They have not 
only lost all the Protection for the maintenance of which they made 
such struggles and sacrifices, but they have likewise brought upon 
themselves the still heavier blow to the landed interest which is going 
to be inflicted in the shape of the legacy duty. Had they possessed 
more foresight, and been less violent and unreasonable, this could 
not have happened to them; for if Peel's original Government had 
held together, and they had been content to accept his guidance, no 
Budget would have contained this measure." 



CHAPTER XIV. 
AFTER THE TRIUMPH. 

Gladstone was a name gladly spoken by every lip. From the Queen 
and the Prince Consort came a letter of congratulation. The strongest 
and best men in all the realm forwarded words significant of their 
admiration and confidence. England felt a thrill of pride that at last 
her great Pitt had a successor worthy to wear his robes, and the Op- 
position itself took a just delight in the fact that so skillful and lucid an 
expositor of finance belonged to the English nation. Greville, under 
date of May 23, 1853, gave an account of an interview with Gladstone's 
friend, Sir James Graham. The former says: 

''Graham seemed in excellent spirits about their political state and 
prospects, all owing to Gladstone and the complete success of his 
Budget. The long and numerous Cabinets, which were attributed by 
the 'Times' to disunion, were occupied in minute consideration of the 
Budget, which was there fully discussed; and Gladstone spoke in the 
Cabinet one day for three hours rehearsing his speech in the House of 

Commons, though not quite at such length He talked of a 

future head, as Aberdeen is always ready to retire at any moment; but 
it is very difficult to find anyone to succeed him. I suggested Glad- 
stone. He shook his head and said it would not do. . . . He spoke 
of the grand mistakes Derby had made. Gladstone's object certainly 
was for a long time to be at the head of the Conservative party in the 
House of Commons, and to join with Derby, who might, in fact, have 
had all the Peelites if he would have chosen to ally himself with them, 
instead of with Disraeli; thus the latter had been the cause of the ruin 
of the party. Graham thought that Derby had committed himself to 
Disraeli in George Bentinck's lifetime in some way which prevented 
his shaking him off, as it would have been his interest to do. The 
Peelites would have united with Derby, but would have nothing to do 

with Disraeli." 

141 



142 GLADSTONE: A BIOGRAPHICAL STUDY. 

Nothing but the stubborn and bloody fact of war could have 
thwarted Gladstone in securing for the English people the benefits 
proposed by this Budget. But the Crimean War was already in sight. 

At this time in Gladstone's life, as it would appear to most readers, 
there was little time for composing essays or studying Homer, but in 
point of fact, Gladstone was never more productive. In his letter to 
the Bishop of Aberdeen he had spoken on freedom and authority, and 
his words are of the utmost value to those who would comprehend 
that subject or understand Gladstone's career. He said: 

"Miserable would be the prospect of the coming times, if we be- 
lieved that authority and freedom were simply conflicting and con- 
tradictory elements in the constitution of a community, so that what- 
ever is given to the one must be deducted from the other. But no 
Briton, who has devoted any portion of his thoughts to the history 
of his country, or the character of its inhabitants, can for a moment 
be ensnared into that, for him, false and degrading belief. It has been 
providentially allotted to this favored isle that it should show to all 
the world how freedom and authority, in their due and wise develop- 
ments, not only may coexist in the same body, but may, instead of 
impairing, sustain and strengthen one another. Among Britons it is 
the extent and security of freedom which renders it safe to entrust 
large powers to Government, and it is the very largeness of those 
powers and the vigor of their exercise which constitute to each indi- 
vidual of the community the great practical safeguard of his liberties 
in return. The free expression of opinion, as our experience has 
taught us, is the safety-valve of passion. That noise of the rushing 
steam, when it escapes, alarms the timid; but it is the sign that we are 
safe. The concession of reasonable privilege anticipates the growth 
of furious appetite." 

At no time in his life, however, was he more true to the England 
of Alfred and Hampden. This was evidenced in his letter to the Bishop 
of London on the Royal Supremacy, in which he says: 

"The monarchy of England has been from early times a free mon- 
archy. The idea of law was altogether paramount, in this happy con- 
stitution, to that of any personal will. Nothing could be more com- 



AFTER THE TRIUMPH. 143 

plete than the recognition of the Sovereign as the source both of 
legislative and of judicial authority for the exigencies of the passing 
day; but it was the felicity of this country that its people did not 
regard the labors of their forefathers as naught. In such manner they 
realized the inheritance they had received from preceding generations, 
that at all times what was to be done was with them secondary, and 
what had been done, primary; and the highest works of the actual 
legislator always aimed at the vindication and re-establishment of the 
labors and acquisitions of those who had preceded him. Here lay the 
grand cause of the success of our English revolutions, that the people 
never rent the web of history, but repaired its rents; never interposed 
a chasm between, never separated, the national life of the present and 
that of the past, but even when they seemed most violently to alter 
the momentary, always aimed at recovering the general, direction of 
their career. Thus everybody knew that there were laws superior to 
the Sovereign, and liberties which he could not infringe; that he was 
King in order to be the guardian of those laws and liberties, and to 
direct both the legislative and all other governing powers in the spirit 
which they breathed, and within the lines which they marked out for 
him." 

In the same, he writes: "A spirit of trust and confidence almost 
unbounded then, was, and still is, the spirit of the British Constitution. 
Even now, after three centuries of progress towards democratic sway, 
the Crown has prerogatives, by acting upon which, within their strict 
and unquestioned bounds, it might at any time throw the country into 
confusion. And so has each House of Parliament. Why is this the 
case? Because it is impossible to tie down by literal enactments the 
sovereign power in a State, since by virtue of its sovereignty it can get 
rid of the limitations imposed upon it, however strict may be their 
letter. Yet if that sovereign powder be well advised, if the different 
elements of the social body be duly represented and organized, there 
arises out of their wise adjustment a system of balance and limitation 
infinitely more effective than any mere statutory bonds. So it has been 
in the State of England; so, it might well be hoped, three hundred 
years ago, that it would be with the Church," 



144 GLADSTONE: A BIOGRAPHICAL STUDY. 

Steadily as he was traveling in the direction of Liberalism, so 
strongly also did he adhere to the great and fundamental principles of 
English constitutional Government. 

But there could be no question that Gladstone saw in the progress 
of these events, and felt in his own experience that England needed 
to be told over and over again to do what we here in America see was 
and is characteristic of the progress of every free government. He 
said: 

"As we follow the course of history, we find that unwise con- 
cession has been the parent of many evils. But unwise resistance is 
answerable for many more; nay, is too frequently the primary source 
of the mischief ostensibly arising from the opposite policy, because 
it is commonly unwise resistance which so dams up the stream and 
accumulates the waters that, when the day of their bursting comes, 
they are absolutely ungovernable. A little modicum of time, indeed, 
may thus be realized by gigantic labors in repression, during which 
not even the slightest ripple shall he audible. And within that little 
time statesmen, dressed in their brief authority, may claim credit with 
the world for the peremptory assertion of power; and for having 
crushed, as the phrase goes at Naples, the hydra of revolution. But 
every hour of that time is not bought, it is borrowed, and borrowed 
at a rate of interest, with which the annals of usury itself have nothing 
to compare. The hydra of revolution is not really to be crushed by 
the attempt to crush, or even by momentary success in crushing, under 
the name of revolution, a mixed and heterogeneous mass of influences, 
feelings, and opinions, bound together absolutely by nothing except 
repugnance to the prevailing rigors and corruptions. Viewed as mere 
matter of policy, this is simply to undertake the service of enlistment 
for the army of the foe. It is a certain proposition that, when a Gov- 
ernment thus treats enmity to abuse as identical with purposes of sub- 
version, it, according to the laws of our mixed nature, partially amal- 
gamates the two, and fulfills at length its own miserable predictions 
in its own more miserable ruin." 




WM. E GLADSTONE— ENGLISH STATESMAN 




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CHAPTER XV. 
THE CRIMEAN WAR. 

In spite of all that the great powers of Europe could do, the war 
in the Crimea assumed its fearful proportions, and the Government was 
committed to projects which left Gladstone's brilliant achievements a 
series of proposals that could not be carried out. Nevertheless the 
finances under Gladstone's administration improved progressively, and 
in spite of the dark cloud which broke forth in desolating war from the 
East, England was prosperous in trade, manufacture and agriculture. In 
the matter of the Crimean War, Mr. Gladstone offered his opposition 
with sober strength, and seemed willing, if not to trust, at least to ap- 
prove all schemes for peace, before admitting the necessity for bloody 
strife. The war, of course, was opposed most strenuously by all 
who accepted the leadership of John Bright in the name of peace. On 
the 31st of March, 1854, Parliament received the Royal message, and 
Bright threw himself heart and soul into antagonism. Mr. Gladstone 
referred afterwards to this occurrence in the following language: 

"We ought to be ready," said he, "as my right hon. friend, Mr. 
Bright, showed himself to be ready at the time of the Crimean War to 
lay his popularity as a sacrifice — (loud cheers) — upon the altar of his 
duty, I will say without a moment of regret, because I am sure that to 
a man of his feelings and strong sympathies it must have been a matter 
of regret to find himself less in harmony for a time with the sentiment 
of that day than he had been heretofore. Perhaps with many senti- 
ments, many moments of regret, but without one sentiment or one 
moment of hesitation. (Cheers.) That, in my opinion, is the conduct 
which beyond all others ennobles the man that pursues it and the 
country that produces such men. It is not every one who has the 
opportunity of making such splendid ofiferings to duty as he did, be- 
cause it Is not every one that can accumulate the stock of public 

145 



146 GLADSTONE: A BIOGRAPHICAL STUDY. 

approbation and esteem out of which alone they can be made. Bui. 
every one of us can, from early life onwards, to some extent imitate 
such conduct, though we may be content to labor in the dark — con- 
tent to labor under suspicion, content to labor under reproach, well 
assured that if we keep the pole-star of duty well fixed in our vision 
we never shall fail to reach the end which we have in view, as far as it 
involves the good of the country, and to reach such mode and measure 
of public approval as may be good and suf^cient for ourselves." (Hear, 
hear.) 

Gladstone remained in his position, even though he had been fight- 
ing against the drift of things toward war, and he stood because he 
believed if he resigned a war ministry would be formed immediately. 

He afterwards wrote of the war, in his review of Sir Theodore 
Martin's Life of the Prince Consort: 

"At the outset, the quarrel was one between Russia and France in 
regard to ecclesiastical privileges at the Holy Places. England was 
but an amicus curiae; and, in that capacity, she thought Russia in the 
right. As, however, the communications went on, the Czar, unfortu- 
nately, committed his case to a special envoy, Prince Menschikofif, 
whose demands upon the Porte appeared to the British Government 
to render harmony in the Turkish Empire, if they should be accepted, 
thenceforth impossible. In the further stages of the correspondence, 
which had thus shifted its ground, we found ourselves in companj^ 
with France; and not with France only, but with Europe. At one 
particular point, it must in fairness be allowed that Russia, with her 
single rapier, had all her antagonists at a disadvantage. They had 
collectively accepted, and they proposed to her a Note, known as the 
Vienna Note, which she also accepted; and they afterwards recedec'i 
from it, upon objection taken to it by Turkey. Russia, however, 
covered the miscarriage of her opponents by sustaining the Turkish 
interpretation of the words, and thus sheltered their retreat from the 
support of the document they themselves had framed. But it was not 
upon this miscarriage that the dispute came to a final issue. The 
broken threads of negotiation were pieced together; and, about the 
time when the year expired, a new instrument, of a moderate and 



THE CRIMEAN WAR. 147 

conciliatory character, was framed at Constantinople, and approved 
by the Cabinets of the five Powers, still in unbroken union. It was 
the rejection of this plan by the Emperor Nicholas, when it was pre- 
sented to him in January, 1854, and not his refusal of the Turkish 
amendments to the Vienna Note, that brought about the war in the 
following March. 

"That war passed through all the phases of popularity; the people, 
and especially the newspapers, were so fond of it while it lasted, that 
they were, as we have seen, reluctant to let it end. It is an unquestion- 
able fact," that Mr. Cobden and Mr. Bright, who stoutly and most dis- 
interestedly opposed it, and who, with the bloom of the Corn Law 
triumph upon them, were before it began the most popular men in the 
country, lost for the time, by their opposition to it, all hold upon the 
general public. The war, however, soon and even rapidly waned in 
favor. At length it came to be looked upon by many, if not by most, 
as an admitted folly. The nation appeared to have come round to 
the opinion of Cobden and of Bright. And yet the war had attained 
its purpose; which was, to repress effectually the aggression of Russia, 
and to secure to Turkey breathing-time and full scope for the reform of 
its government. 

"It may be said that, after all, she did not reform her government. 
Most true; but it is only within a short time that this fact has become 
at all generally known to our countrymen. And, moreover, this re- 
form was not, properly speaking, the object of the war, but rather an 
aim incidental to the conditions of the Peace. Why, then, did it fall 
into disfavor? Because men estimated its object, not as it was drawn 
out in the minds of the statesmen who made the war, but according 
to their own unauthorized and exaggerated ideas of its aim, and of the 
position of the several parties. Turkey, it had been too commonly 
held, was a young and vigorous country, only waiting an open and 
calm atmosphere to break out into the beauty and bloom of a young 
civilization. Russia was to be cut into morsels, or at the least to be 
crippled by the amputation of important members. The extravagance 
of these anticipations led to disappointment; and the disappointment, 



148 GLADSTONE: A BIOGRAPHICAL STUDY. 

for which people had themselves, or perhaps their newspapers, to thank, 
was avenged upon the Crime?in War. 

"The persons who are really entitled to vaunt their foresight in this 
matter, as superior alike to the views of Sovereigns and of statesmen, 
are the few, the very few, who objected to the war from the beginning 
to the end, and who founded this objection not upon a philanthropic 
yet scarcely rational proscription of war under all circumstances and 
conditions, but upon a deeper insight into the nature and foundations 
of Mahometan power over Christian races, than had fallen to the lot 
either of diplomacy or of statesmanship. Of these, perhaps the most 
distinguished are Mr. Freeman and Dr. Newman, both of whom in 
1853 proclaimed the hopeless nature, not of the Ottoman as such, but 
of the Ottoman ascendancy. Both have republished their works of that 
date, and Mr. Freeman has taken a most active and able part in all the 
recent controversies; in which, to the surprise of many admirers, the 
living voice of Dr. Newman has not once been heard." 

But Mr. Gladstone had been heard. The war had come, with its 
desolations, its terrible blunders, its heroisms, and its attendant ex- 
pense. In 1854 Mr. Gladstone offered his Budget, but the circum- 
stances contrasted widely with those of a year previous. Yet the 
Finance Minister was sure footed and able. Greville writes: 

"May 7th: The failure of Gladstone's Exchequer Bill scheme has 
been very injurious to the Government, and particularly to him. The 
prodigious applause and admiration with which he was greeted last 
year have given way to distrust and apprehension of him as a finance 
minister, and the repeated failures of his different schemes here in a 
very short time materially damaged his reputation, and destroyed the 
prestige of his great abilities. All practical men in the city severely 
blame him for having exposed himself to the defeat thus sustained. 
The consequences will not probably be serious, but the Government 
is weakened by it, and the diminution of public confidence in Glad- 
stone is a public misfortune." 

Greville adds, under date of May 7th and loth, 1854, the follow- 
ing: 

"May 7th: It is scarcely a year ago that I was writing enthusiastic 



THE CRIMEAN WAR. 149 

panegyrics on Gladstone, and describing him as the great ornament 
and support of the Government, and as the future Prime Minister. 
This was after the prodigious success of his first Budget and his able 
speeches, but a few months seem to have overturned all his power and 
authority. I hear nothing but complaints of his rashness and passion 
for his experiments; and on all sides, from men, for example, like 
Tom Baring and Robarts, one a Tory, the other a Whig, that the city 
and the moneyed men have lost all confidence in him. To-morrow 
night he is to make his financial statement, and intense curiosity pre- 
vails to see how he will provide the ways and means for carrying on the 
war. Everybody expects that he will make an able speech; but bril- 
liant speeches do not produce great effect, and more anxiety is felt 
for the measures he will propose than for the dexterity and ingenuity 
he may display for proposing them. Parliament is ready to vote 
without grumbling any money that is asked for, and as yet at the very 
beginning of this horrible mess, and the people are still looking with 
eager interest to the successes they anticipate, and have not yet begun 
to feel the cost. 

"May loth: Gladstone made a great speech on Monday night. 
He spoke for nearly four hours, occupying the first half of the time 
in an elaborate and not unsuccessful defense of his former measures. 
Plis speech was certainly very able, was well received, and the Budget 
pronounced an honorable and creditable one. If he had chosen to 
sacrifice his conscientious convictions to popularity, he might have 
gained a great amount of the latter by proposing a loan, and no more 
taxes than would be necessary for the interest of it. I do not yet know 
whether his defense of his abortive schemes has satisfied the monetary 
critics. It was certainly yery plausible, and will be probably sufficient 
for the uninformed and the half-informed, who cannot detect any 
fallacies which may lurk within it. He attacked some of his opponents 
with great severity, particularly Disraeli and Monteagle, but I doubt if 
this was prudent. He flung about his sarcasms upon smaller fry, and 
this certainly was not discreet. I think this speech has been of service 
to his financial character, and done a good deal towards the restora- 
tion of his credit." 



I50 GLADSTONE: A BIOGRAPHICAL STUDY. 

The Crimean War had made it impossible for him to go far in 
financial reform. Lord John Russell and he were both pained because 
their plans had been broken in upon by the strife, and taxation had 
been increased. He asked the House of Commons to double the 
income tax so long as the war lasted, in order that posterity might 
not have to pay the chief cost of the war. Gladstone had spoken amidst 
the applause of a great nation. He said, among other things: 

"We have entered upon a great struggle, but we have entered 
upon it under favorable circumstances. We have proposed to you 
to make great efforts, and you have nobly and cheerfully backed our 
proposals. You have already by your votes added nearly 40,000 men 
to the establishments of the country; and taking into account changes 
that have* actually been carried into effect with regard to the return of 
soldiers from the Colonies, and the arrangements which, in the present 
state of Ireland, might be made — but which are not made — with respect 
to the constabulary force, in order to render the military force dis- 
posable to the utmost possible extent, it is not too much to say that 
we have virtually an addition to the disposable forces of the country, 
by land and by sea, at the present moment, as compared with our 
position twelve months ago, to the extent of nearly 50,000 men. This 
looks like your intention to carry on your war with vigor, and the wish 
and hope of Her Majesty's Government is, that that may be truly said 
of the people of England, with regard to this war, which was, I am 
afraid, not so truly said of Charles II. by a courtly but great poet, 
Dryden — 

He without fear a dangerous war pursues. 
Which without rashness he began before. 

That, we trust, will be the motto of the people of England; and you 
have this advantage, that the sentiment of Europe, and we trust the 
might of Europe, is with you. These circumstances — though we must 
not be sanguine, though it would be the wildest presumption for any 
man to say, when the ravages of European war had once begun, where 
and at what point it would be stayed — these circumstances justify us 
in cherishing the hope that possibly this may not be a long war." 



THE CRIMEAN WAR. 151 

He wrote years afterward in his review of "The Life of the Prince 
Consort," of the events of this time: 

"The attachment of the Sovereign and her Consort to Sir Robert 
Peel, the Duke of Welhngton, and Lord Aberdeen, led them to watch 
with interest the working of the Aberdeen Cabinet, in which the Peelites 
held no less than six offices, besides having four members of their small 
party in the most important positions outside the Cabinet. The six 
Cabinet Ministers were Lord Aberdeen, the Duke of Argyll,* Sir James 
Graham, the Duke of Newcastle, Mr. Gladstone, and Mr. Sydney 
Herbert. The four outside the door w^ere Mr. Cardwell at the Board 
of Trade, Lord Canning at the Post Office, Lord St. Germans, Viceroy 
of Ireland, and Sir John Young, Chief Secretary. Another Cabinet 
Minister, Sir William Molesworth, was perhaps more nearly associated 
with them than with the Whigs. Holding this large share of official 
power, the Peelites did not bring more than about thirty independent 
votes to the support of the Ministry, in addition to which they neutral- 
ized the Opposition of perhaps as many more members who sat on the 
other side of the House. Mr. Martin says (p. 90), Tt was apparent 
to all the world that no cordial unanimity existed between the Peelite 
section of the Ministry and their colleagues.' 

"This is an entire mistake. It must be stated, to the credit of all 
parties, but especially of the Whig section of that Cabinet, that although 
the proportions of official power were so different from those of the 
voting strength in Parliament, there was no sectional demarcation, nor 
any approach to it, w^ithin the Cabinet. In proof of this statement, it 
may be mentioned that when, in the recess of 1853-4, Lord Palmerston 
had resigned his office on account of the impending Reform Bill, and 
it was desired to induce him to reconsider his decision, the two persons 
who were chosen for the duty of communicating to him the wish of his 
colleagues were the Duke of Newcastle and Mr. Gladstone. 



* The Duke of Argyll was invited at a very early age, on account of 
his high personal character and his talent, to enter the Cabinet of Lord 
Aberdeen, but he did not belong to the ex-official corps who passed bv 
the name of Peelites, while he was in political accordance with them- 



CHAPTER XVI. 
A NEW GOVERNMENT. 

On the 25th of January, 1855, Mr. Roebuck began his attack upon 
the Ministry. It was a censure on the War Department and the con- 
duct of the war. Lord Russell wrote to Aberdeen, telling him his only 
course was to tender his resignation. Soon the Ministry had resigned. 
Lord Russell and Lord Derby each failed to form an administration, 
and on the 6th of February, 1855, it was announced in the House of 
Lords by Lord Granville that a government had been constituted. 
Lord Palmerston was at the head. "The inevitable man" was active at 
the outset. Mr. Gladstone, with his friends, Sir James Graham and Mr. 
Sidney Herbert, still antagonized the forces which caused Lord Aber- 
deen to resign. Mr. Gladstone was succeeded in ofBce by his school- 
mate of other days, Sir George Cornewall Lewis. The triumvirate 
which was formed by Herbert, Gladstone and Sir James Graham was 
described by Gladstone as "a set of roving icebergs, on which men could 
land with safety, but with which ships might come into perilous col- 
lision." 

When the year 1856 closed, the heavens were brighter, for peace 
had come, and any difEiculties with the United States on the Enlistment 
question had vanished away. England and the other European powers 
were satisfied with each other, and all seemed to point toward an era 
of prosperity for the English people. It was no doubt the desire of 
Gladstone at this time to pursue his task of fiscal reform. On the 3d 
of February, 1857, Parliament was opened. Mr. Cobden soon made his 
motion condemning the conduct of the Government and proposing 
an inquiry into the state of England's commercial relations with China. 
In this debate Gladstone became involved in fierce controversy with 
Lord Palmerston who defended the Government. The point upon 
which the discussion turned was very unimportant, apparently, but the 

152 



A NEW GOVERNMENT. 153 

debate brought Lord Palmerston within sight of a resignation. The 
Government, however, determined not to resign, but to dissolve. The 
electoral conflict was immediately on, and Mr, Gladstone was every- 
where eloquent and forceful as he journeyed through the country de- 
livering his glowing and patriotic addresses. Cobden, Bright, Milner 
Gibson and Fox, were rejected by their constituents, and Bright took 
leave of the electors of Manchester in a speech calm, dignified, yet 
deeply pathetic. Lord John Russell stood third on the poll for the 
City of London, and it was evident that the constituencies supported 
and approved Palmerston, whom Disraeli had called "the Tory chief 
of a Radical Cabinet." Any chance for Gladstone's fiscal reform seemed 
indefinitely removed; but in the first session of the new Parliament 
Gladstone found himself eagerly engaged in a contest against the pass- 
ing of a divorce bill which strongly ofifended his ecclesiastical and highly 
conservative sensibilities and convictions. Many times the proposal 
to "facilitate the breaking of marriage bonds," as he saw it, had 
come to the front, and had occupied a large share of legislative atten- 
tion. The Prime Minister now stood behind it, and the measure was 
carried, in spite of conscientious and enthusiastic opposition. 

It is very easy for a less grave and strenuous soul to misunderstand 
the earnestness of such a man as Gladstone when he knew that such 
another man as Palmerston was utterly reckless of the command of 
great moral sentiments. While Palmerston never really believed that 
any man need to care a penny for ancient wrongs, which ever tend to 
become venerable to that class of men, Gladstone's grave and chaster 
spirit chafed at the very thought of their existence, and if he was 
fierce in his attack upon Palmerston, or "anxious to be in office," as 
has been so often said of him, it was because he saw crouching behind 
such a figure as Palmerston gigantic evils which the progress of man- 
kind must extirpate, and he discerned in office the opportunity for 
such a man as Gladstone proved himself to be, to strike, and strike 
home, against respectable evil. 

When Palmerston resigned early in 1858, he had the joy of remem- 
bering that his Chinese policy had been victorious, and Canton had 
surrendered to the armies of England. It was with much difficulty 



154 GLADSTONE: A BIOGRAPHICAL STUDY. 

that Lord Derby, under command of his Sovereign, constituted a gov- 
ernment. He vi-as conscious that he had on hand very serious prob- 
lems. Disraeli was, however, able to announce in Padiament that the 
peace between England and France, which was threatened, was more 
strong and promising than ever, now that the reply had been given to 
the note of Count Walewski, the minister of foreign affairs at Paris, 
who had accused England of harboring such criminals as had attacked 
the French Emperor. Gladstone at this time was studying profoundly 
both his Homer and his schemes for financial reform. He, however, 
could not allow his Government to make a slight answer to the charges 
of France. Some one must explain the law of England, as it had to do 
with a criminal, who, having gone from London to Paris, had attacked 
the Emperor of "the French. Gladstone spoke noble words in Parlia- 
ment. He believed in the law of England, and he urged that that law 
should' be vindicated. His spirit would not for a moment permit him 
or his country to "lie under a cloud of accusation," of which "the law," 
at least, was "totally innocent." He added: 

These times are grave for liberty. We live in the nineteenth century; 
we talk of progress; we believe that we are advancing, but can any man 
of observation who has watched the events of the last few years in Europe 
have failed to perceive that there is a movement indeed, but a downward 
and backward movement? There are a few spots in which institutions that 
claim our sympathy still exist and flourish. They are secondary places — 
nay, they are almost the holes and corners of Europe so far as mere material 
greatness is concerned, although their moral greatness will, I trust, ensure 
them long prosperity and happiness. But in these times more than ever 
does responsibility center upon the institutions of England; and if it does 
center upon England, upon her principles, upon her laws, and upon her 
governors, then I say that a measure passed by this House of Com- 
mons — the chief hope of freedom — which attempts to establish a moral 
complicity between us and those who seek safety in repressive measures, 
will be a blow and a discouragement to that sacred cause in every country 
in the world. 

Disraeh's India Bill did not demand Gladstone's fierce denunciation 
to render it sufficiently unpopular and to give it no chance for a second 
reading. A compromise was offered in July on the aggravating sub- 



A NEW GOVERNMENT. 155 

ject of Jewish Disabilities, and the oath was administered in the Lower 
House to Baron Rothschild. Bright was arguing eloquently for a 
larger franchise, and Lord Derby and Disraeli were becoming con- 
scious that reform must be made strongly and at once or there was 
danger of their government being overwhelmed. 

In 1859, after changes in the Ministry almost unmatched in number 
in any generation in England, Mr. Gladstone acceded to the Ministry 
and confronted a contest for his seat for the University of Oxford. 
There was no longer any question that Gladstone was grandly in- 
consistent with his past. More and more clearly defined was the hither- 
to vague Liberalism of this man whom Macaulay had once called "the 
hope of those stern and unbending Tories." Oxford was becoming a 
Httle restive, but even Oxford was charmed with him and proud withal 
when once more he introduced a Budget, and on the i8th of July made 
another splendid exposition of financial principles, creating genuine 
enthusiasm as he spoke of penny stamps, bankers' checks, malt credits, 
and the like. Fortunately, prosperity revived, and the year's revenue 
exceeded that of any previous year by more than two million pounds. 
Verily Gladstone had Providence with him. 

People are not usually anxious for reform when they are prosperous 
in the most worldly sense, and this was a time when nobody was de- 
manding it and nobody feared it. It was therefore a good time for 
moderate counsels. Mr. Disraeli had agreed to yield as much as Lord 
John Russell desired, and the Queen's speech indicated that the Govern- 
ment was willing to put a broader, firmer basis under national repre- 
sentation. Cobden was arranging a treaty with France, and free trade 
had its widest victory in that commercial amity which took the form 
of the treaty. 

In all this discussion, Mr. Gladstone never failed to recognize the 
excellent service of men who differed from him in temperament and 
oftentimes in the means employed to the end of national growth and 
safe constitutional development. An example of this may be found in 
the fact that w'hen Mr. Gladstone introduced his Budget, which set 
forth the provisions of the treaty making peace, he said of Cobden: 

*Tt is a great privilege of any man who, having fifteen years ago ren- 



156 GLADSTONE: A BIOGRAPHICAL STUDY. 

dered to his country one important and signal service, now enjoys the 
singular good fortune of having in his power — undecorated, bearing 
no mark of rank or title from his sovereign, or from the people — to 
perform another signal service in the same cause for the benefit of, I 
hope, a not ungrateful country." 

It was a singularly shrewd, if it had not been a perfectly just, recog- 
nition of the man who had completed commercial relations with France, 
and who w^as so intimately associated with one who was so intolerant of 
war as Mr. Bright. The latter had no hesitancy in creating a progres- 
sive opinion in behalf of peace and thus enabling the Chancellor of the 
Exchequer to deal with other problems. 

"Politically," observed Mr. Bright, 'T live and move and have my 
being only in the hope that I may advance the cause of truth and your 
cause, if only by a single step. (Cheers.) If I tell you that peace and 
peaceful industry is your path of wisdom and of greatness; if I say 
it is your taxes that are spent, your sweat which is pawned, your blood 
which is shed in war, am I the less your countryman? (Loud cheers 
and cries of "No.") If your Sunday prayer for peace be not a mockery 
and offensive in the sight of Heaven, then I am justified in denouncing, 
as I now heartily denounce, them who in the Parliament or in your 
Press are striving to involve the most potent nations of the earth in the 
crimes and in the calamities of war." (Loud cheers.) 

Gladstone seemed to handle the finances with so sure a grasp that 
England gave Providence no particular praise for a state of things in 
which the able Finance Minister appeared positively brilliant. 

April 25th, 1858, Greville tells us of the attack Gladstone made upon 
Palmerston, in his review article in the Quarterly on France and the 
Ministry: 

"April 29th: Every day the position of the Government gets worse. 
The disposition there was to give them a fair opportunity of carrying 
on public affairs as well as they could has given way to disgust and 
contempt at their blundering and stupidity, and those w^ho have all 
along resented their attempt to hold oflfice at all are becoming more im- 
patient and more anxious to turn them out. There is a very temperate, 
but very just, article in the 'Times' to-day, which contains all that is 



A NEW GOVERNMENT. 157 

to be said on the subject, stated without bitterness or exaggeration. 
The Whigs, however, seem aware that it is not expedient to push such 
matters to extremity, and to force their resignation, until the quarrels 
of the Liberal party are made up, and till Palmerston and John Russell 
are brought together and prepared to join in taking office, and to effect 
this object the most tremendous effort are making. What the pacifi- 
cators aim at is, that Palmerston should go as Premier to the House of 
Lords, and leave Lord John to lead the House of Commons. This is 
the most reasonable compromise, and one which ought to be satis- 
factory to both; but even if this leading condition were agreed to, it is 
not certain that there might not be other presenting great obstacles 
to the union, such as whether Lord John would agree to join without 
bringing a certain number of men vjith him, and whether Palmerston 
would consent to exclude so many of his former Cabinet to make room 
for them. Graham, Lord John would, I suppose, certainly insist upon; 
Gladstone would probably be no party to any arrangement, and he has 
recently evinced his extreme antipathy to Palmerston by a bitter 
though able review in the 'Quarterly' on France and the late Ministry, 
in which he attacks Palmerston with extraordinary asperity. 

"Ever since he resigned, Palmerston has been very active in the 
House of Commons, and kept himself constantly before the public, 
evidently with the object of recovering his former popularity as much 
as possible, and he made a very clever and lively speech two nights 
ago, which his friends praise up to the skies. 

'T met Derby yesterday, and soon after the Chancellor in Pic- 
cadilly, and had some talk with both of them. They were neither of 
them in a very sanguine mood, and apparently well aware of the 
precariousness of their position. Derby attributed the state of affairs, 
which he ow^ned was very bad, to the caprice and perverseness of the 
House of Commons, which he said was manageable. I did not. as I 
might have done, tell him that he had no right to complain of this 
House, and that it was the mismanagemenj; of his own colleagues which 
was the cause of the evil. Lyndhurst made an extraordinary speech on 
the Jew Bill on Tuesday night." 



CHAPTER XVII. 
THE IONIAN ISLANDS. 

It was in 1858 that Gladstone was besought by Lord Derby to visit 
the Ionian Isles as Lord High Commissioner Extraordinary from Eng- 
land. Nothing could have been more to his liking as a student of 
Greece than such an opportunity as was this, to bathe his spirit in the 
very atmosphere of Greek freedom, and catch some of the echoes of 
Greek literature under the sky which had arched itself over the heads 
of Homer and Sappho. However great his enthusiasm over his pro- 
posed visit was from a literary point of view, the interest in his depart- 
ure lay more largely in the fact that these Islands, which had been 
under English protection, wished to unite themselves to Greece. Of 
course, with a desire of that kind to deal with, the business of govern- 
ing them on the part of England had become very complex and 
arduous. 

If England had expected this plastic and sympathetic scholar to go 
forth with the usual panoply of John Bull, and wrest from the Islands 
their wish and aspiration toward Greece, England had sorely miscal- 
culated and provided for a grievous disappointment. 

Gladstone went, and on the 3d of December, the Senate of the 
Ionian Islands was charmed and inspired by a characteristic address 
delivered by the eloquent Englishman in the Italian language. It is 
very doubtful if ever a representative of a strong nation stood in a 
more happy frame of mind or conducted his task with more of genuine 
humanity and comprehensive wisdom, than did Gladstone on this oc- 
casion. He was invited as the official of Great Britain to meet the citi- 
zens of the Islands at levees, and from platforms erected In the most sig- 
nificant spots he spoke with extraordinary foresight and impassioned 
eloquence. Lord Aberdeen, who was usually willing to estimate prop- 
erlv the poetic and romantic side of Gladstone's nature, looked over 

158 



THE IONIAN ISLANDS. 159 

seas, and beheld him arranging a scheme of government for these 
Islands which John Bull laughed at, and even Aberdeen called fanciful. 
Gladstone, as Lord High Commissioner, did not need a brilliant genius 
to discover that the inhabitants of the Islands wished to be connected 
with Greece by the closest political relationships; indeed, that they 
desired nothing less than union. They sent their petitioner to Her 
Majesty in England, and Gladstone came back to London, having per- 
formed his task to his taste and to his honor. 

We have already swiftly sketched the movements which were im- 
mediately related to these events. The air was full of cries for reform, 
and on the 28th of February, 1859, Disraeli had introduced his Reform 
Bill. It was a very great disappointment for those who were expect- 
ing some relief from the intolerable burdens which ever3avhere were 
resting heavily upon the shoulders of the common people. The Re- 
form question was not one which Disraeli had created, and there can be 
no question that his party was not anxious to admit reform. But 
it appeared to him the only course to take, and he ran off with the 
reform movement, bag and baggage, appropriating it for his own 
genius and his party's future. He had stolen the admired livery of 
his rivals. John Bright was never more serviceable as an orator sup- 
porting the larger conceptions of English constitutional government, 
than he became in his speeches delivered before vast audiences, or in his 
attacks upon the Bill in the House of Commons. Disraeli's cleverness 
at political chicanery never escaped Gladstone's eye or the crushing- 
power of his strong hand when it was necessary for him to administer 
a bold and fatal rebuke. But Bright possessed a fund of humor which 
Gladstone never had, and Bright allowed hiniself to deal with Disraeli's 
weaknesses of character and explosive brilliancies, in the spirit of a 
humorist. Just at this time he invented the phrase, descriptive of the 
effect of Disraeli's proposed legislation — "fancy franchises." The 
House of Commons and the whole country took hold of the phrase, as 
they had taken hold of other phrases he had spoken with reference 
to Disraeli, and, indeed, as England always takes hold of a phrase from 
a bright and witty man, and the epithet prevailed everywhere. Mr. 
Gladstone spoke with an astonishing force of appeal, reminding Eng- 



i6o GLADSTONE: A BIOGRAPHICAL STUDY. 

land how many great men had begun their careers by means of help 
from some pocket borough, or, having already been thrown overboard 
by the City, they had not appealed in vain to some pocket borough to 
keep them in Parliament until they were heard. It w^as a curious pro- 
duction, even from Gladstone, but it illuminated the point of view from 
which he regarded things. The old bark had not yet quite fallen from 
the growing tree. However, he was to be defeated. Thirty-nine votes 
registered themselves against the side upon which Gladstone voted. A 
dissolution of Parliament was advised and accomplished, and Oxford 
sent Gladstone back to the first session of the new Parliament early in 
June. The speech from the Throne had hardly been read, when Lord 
Hartington moved a vote indicating a lack of confidence in the min- 
isters, and again Gladstone's side was defeated, for he voted with the 
Government, and it was overthrown by a majority of thirteen. Gran- 
ville, whom the Queen asked to form a Government, failed, and Palmer- 
ston again was placed at the head, with Gladstone in charge of Finance 
and Lord John Russell in charge of Foreign Affairs. Oxford had lost 
patience. Her pride and glory had evinced a startling independence of 
character. Now Oxford rose in opposition to her eminent son, and one 
of the most distinguished of the professors of that seat of learning ad- 
dressed a manifesto to the voters in which he announced that Glad- 
stone's acceptance of office "must now be considered as giving his 
definite adhesion to the Liberal party." 




THE RIGHT HONORABLE LORD JOHN RUSSELL 




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CHAPTER XVIII. 

GLADSTONE AND MACAULAY. 

The year 1859 marks a date in the history of EngHsh historical 
writing, from the fact that Henry Hallam and Lord Macaulay had died. 
We have already found Macaulay dealing, in his superior wisdom and 
riper years, with the man who was sure, in the course of time, to pro- 
duce one of the best and most carefully reasoned essays upon the bril- 
liant historian and acute essayist. Macaulay showed how trenchant and 
resistless he could become while toying with a young man of brilliant 
attainments as a cat might play with a fat mouse, in the essay which 
he wrote upon Gladstone's book on Church and State. Both of these 
men were students of the Scriptures, and Thomas Babbington Mac- 
aulay had received from Zachary Macaulay a stream of Whiggery as 
certainly as had William Ewart Gladstone received from Sir John 
Gladstone a stream of Toryism, by the fact that each child had studied 
the Scriptures under the influence of his father. In later years Glad- 
stone was to eclipse Macaulay in his studies of the Greek authors and 
the Christian fathers. Gladstone's career at Oxford was as brilliant as 
Macaulay's career at Cambridge. Both were sons of men easily able to 
help their children to any profession. Everybody said that Macaulay 
was to be a lawyer, and he turned out a literary man; everybody said 
Gladstone was to be a churchman, and he turned out a statesman. 
These same differing sets of people were very much alike and formed 
a great general public which the older and younger men addressed 
through the great reviews of England, Mr. Gladstone's ability to look 
upon a subject without prejudice may be inferred from the fact that he 
was, at the time of his life when he was most easily hurt, severely 
handled by the reviewer of his dearly-loved first production. The best 
and worst of Macaulay's literary methods, — his straightforAvardness and 
his utter devotion to the present and its circle of judgment — appeared 

161 
li 



i62 GLADSTONE: A BIOGRAPHICAL STUDY. 

in his review of Gladstone, It gives us a fine faith in human nature and 
its ability to rise into an atmosphere where justice may be done both to 
the great ideal to which an antagonist was untrue and to his own 
signal abilities and attendant virtues, when we read such a passage as 
this in Gladstone's essay on Macaulay: 

"One of the very first things that must strike the observer of this 
man is, that he was very unlike to any other man. And yet this unlike- 
ness, this monopoly of the model in which he was made, did not spring 
from violent or eccentric features of originality, for eccentricity he had 
none whatever, but from the peculiar mode in which the ingredients 
were put together to make up the composition. In one sense, beyond 
doubt, such powers as his famous memory, his rare power of illustra- 
tion, his command of language, separated him broadly from others; but 
gifts like these do not make the man; and we now for the first time 
know that he possessed, in a far larger sense, the stamp of a real and 
strong individuality. The most splendid and complete assemblage of 
intellectual endowments does not of itself suffice to create an interest of 
the kind that is, and will be, now felt in Macaulay. It is from ethical 
gifts alone that such an interest can spring. These existed in him not 
only in abundance, but in forms distinct from, and even contrasted with, 
the fashion of his intellectual faculties, and in conjunctions which come 
near to paradox. Behind the mask of splendor lay a singular simplicity, 
behind a literary severity which sometimes approached to vengeance, 
an extreme tenderness; behind a rigid repudiation of the sentimental, 
a sensibility at all times quick, and in the latest times almost threatening 
to sap, though never sapping, his manhood." 

One of the elements which pervaded Gladstone's whole personality 
is that Scotch force of vision which looks at a subject so long as to 
see it completely, if not interiorly, which in Macaulay was oftentimes 
splendidly in evidence. The Englishman Gladstone and the English- 
man Macaulay at last came nearly understanding one another through 
the Scotchman in both of them. Nothing in English criticism is finer 
than Gladstone's treatment of Macaulay's hobby-riding and the influ- 
ence which his passion for a chase on the hobby may have exercised 
upon his power for finding truth. 



GLADSTONE AND MACAULAY. 163 

"Macaulay was not only accustomed, like many more of us, to go 
out hobby-riding, but, from the portentous vigor of the animal he 
mounted, was liable, more than most of us, to be run away with. His 
merit is, that he could keep his seat in the wildest steeplechase; but, 
as the object in view is arbitrarily chosen, so it is reached by cutting up 
the fields, spoihng the crops, and spoiling or breaking down the fences 
needful to secure for labor its profit, and to man at large the full enjoy- 
nient of the fruits of the earth. Such is the overpowering glow of color, 
such the fascination of the grouping in the first sketches which he draws, 
that, when he has grown hot upon his work, he seems to lose all sense 
of the restraints of fact, and the laws of moderation; he vents the strang- 
est paradoxes, sets up the most violent caricatures, and handles the 
false weight and measure as efifectively as he did it knowingly. A man 
so able and so upright is never indeed wholly wrong. He never for a 
moment consciously pursues anything but truth. But truth depends, 
above all, on proportion and relation. The greater human vividness 
with which Macaulay sees his object, absolutely casts a shadow upon 
what lies around; he loses his perspective; and imagination, impelled 
headlong by the strong consciousness of honesty in purpose, achieves 
the work of fraud. All things for him stand in violent contrast to one 
another. For the shadows, the gradations, the middle and transition 
touches, wdiich make up the bulk of human life, character, and action, 
he has neither eye nor taste. They are not taken account of in his prac- 
tice, and they at length die away from the ranges of his vision." 

Still further did Gladstone appreciate most truly Macaulay's argu- 
mentative impulse, for the historian was always a debater. Gladstone 
was a thorough student of Macaulay's speeches and was often heard to 
regret that British eloquence was not enriched more largely by a career 
which was devoted not so much to speaking as to writing. Macaulay's 
industry has been more than matched by Gladstone's, but nothing com- 
manded a man to Gladstone so truly as plenty of industry and plenty 
of good intentions. So, and only so, could he acquit Macaulay of some 
unfairness in his writings. His own statement is as follows: 

"He may not have possessed that scrupulously tender sense of obli- 
gation, that nice tact of exact justice, which is among the very rarest, 



i64 GLADSTONE: A BIOGRAPHICAL STUDY. 

as well as the most precious, of human virtues. But there never was a 
writer less capable of intentional unfairness. This during his lifetime 
was the belief of his friends, but was hardly admitted by opponents. 
His biographer has really lifted the question out of the range of con- 
troversy. He wrote for truth; but, of course, for truth such as he saw 
it; and his sight was colored from within. This color, once attached, 
was what in manufacture is called a mordant; it w^as a fast color; he 
could not distinguish between what his mind had received, and what 
his mind had imparted. Hence, when he was wrong, he could not 
see that he was wrong; and of those calamities which are due to the 
intellect only, and not the heart, there can hardly be a greater. The 
hope of amending is, after all, our very best and brightest hope; of 
amending our works as well as ourselves." 

So much attention has been given here to Gladstone's essay on 
Macaulay, because it is perhaps the very best of his efforts to appreciate 
a man who once urged against him the very principles to which Mr. 
Gladstone, later on in life, became more friendly, if not sincerely 
attached. Gladstone's gradual change from a proud and self-contained 
Toryism to a broad, teachable and progressive Liberalism, did not 
occur without offering serious opportunities for a mind as mobile and 
responsive as his own to acquire certain twists and wrenches which 
leave themselves in the form of chronic inability to perceive the half- 
truth which one has brought out of a former association and to unite 
it to the half-truth toward which one journeys in the course of the 
intellectual change. When Mr, Gladstone first read Macaulay's His- 
tory, he must have felt that the principles of the Whigs were unduly 
idealized. No radiance of genius could keep him from seeing that 
there was a truth in the position which he was gradually leaving, to 
which Macaulay was strangely, if not wilfully, blind. Gladstone's trans- 
formation from a Conservatism gone to seed to a Liberalism full of 
sap and promising with buds, found nothing in Macaulay's persistent 
bias and ungrowing measure of mind to generate strong praise. But 
as a specimen of fair-mindedness and conscientious fidelity in appre- 
ciation, rather than in criticism, this passage from Gladstone's essay 
must be regarded as characteristic: 



GLADSTONE AND MACAULAY. 165 

"The contemporary mind may in rare cases be taken by storm; but 
posterity never. The tribunal of the present is accessible to influence; that 
of the future is incorrupt. The coming generations will not give Macaulay 
up: but they will, probably, attach much less value than we have done to 
his ipse dixit. They will hardly accept from him his net solutions of literary, 
and still less of historic problems. Yet they will obtain from his marked 
and telling points of view great aid in solving them. We sometimes fancy 
that ere long there will be editions of his works in which his readers may be 
saved from pitfalls by brief, respectful, and judicious commentary, and that 
his great achievements may be at once commemorated and corrected by 
men of slower pace, of drier light, and of more tranquil, broadset, and com- 
prehensive judgment. For his works are in many respects among the 
prodigies of literature; in some, they have never been surpassed. As lights 
that have shone through the whole universe of letters, they have made their 
title to a place in the solid firmament of fame. But the tree is greater and 
better than its fruit; and greater and better yet than the works themselves 
are the lofty aims and conceptions, the large heart, the independent, manful 
mind, the' pure and noble career, which in this biography have disclosed to us 
the true figure of the man who wrote them." 

The political friendship of Lord John Russell and Mr. Gladstone 
at this point was very deep and sympathetic, and they agreed one 
with the other in most schemes of the Government. Not for a moment 
did Mr. Gladstone relax his energies as a thinker on the subject of edu- 
cation, and in the early part of i860, he prepared an address which 
he delivered, April i6th of the same year, as Lord Rector of the Univer- 
sity of Edinburgh. In this inaugural he said: 

"Subject to certain cycles of partial revolution, it is true that, as in 
the material so in the moral world, every generation of men is a laborer 
for that which is to succeed it, and makes an addition to that great sum- 
total of achieved results, which may, in commercial phrase, be called 
the capital of the race. Of all the conditions of existence in which man 
differs from the brutes, there is not one of greater moment than this, 
that each one of them commences life as if he were the first of a species, 
whereas man inherits largely from those who have gone before. How 
largely, none of us can say; but my belief is that, as years gather more 
and more upon you, you will estimate more and more highly your debt 
to preceding ages. If, on the one hand, that debt is capable of being 



i66 GLADSTONE: A BIOGRAPHICAL STUDY. 

exaggerated or misapprehended; if arguments are sometimes strangely 
used which would imply that, because they have done much, we ought 
to do nothing more; yet, on the other hand, it is no less true that the 
obligation is one so vast and manifold, that it can never as a whole be 
adequately measured. It is not only in possessions, available for use, 
enjoyment, and security; it is not only in language, laws, institutions, 
arts, religion; it is not only in what we have; but in what we are. For, 
as character is formed by the action and reaction of the human being 
and the circumstances in which he lives, it follows that, as those circum- 
stances vary, he alters too; and he transmits a modified — it ought to 
be also an expanded and expanding — nature onwards in his turn to 
his posterity, under that profound law which establishes, between every 
generation and its predecessors, a moral as w^ell as a physical associa- 
tion. 

"In what degree this process is marred, on the one hand, by the 
perversity and by the infirmity of man, or restored and extended, on the 
other, by the remedial provisions of the Divine mercy, this is not the 
place to inquire. The progress of mankind is, upon the whole, a 
checkered and an intercepted progress; and even where it is full formed, 
still, just as in the individual youth has charms, that maturity under an 
inexorable law must lose, so the earlier ages of the world will ever 
continue to delight and instruct us by beauties that are exclusively or 
peculiarly their own. Again, it would seem as though this progress 
(and here is a chastening and a humbling thought) were a progress of 
mankind, and not of the individual man; for it seems to be quite clear 
that whatever be the comparative greatness of the race now and in its 
infant or early stages, what may be called the normal specimens, so far 
as they have been made known to us either through external form or 
through the works of the intellect, have tended rather to dwindle, or at 
least to diminish, than to grow in the highest elements of greatness." 

He concluded as follows: 

"And, gentlemen, if you let yourselves enjoy the praise of your 
teachers, let me beseech you to repay their care, and to help their ardu- 
ous work, by entering into it with them, and by showing that you meet 
their exertions neither with a churlish mistrust, nor with a passive in- 



GLADSTONE AND MACAULAY. 167 

difference, but with free and ready gratitude. Rely upon it, they 
require your sympathy; and they require it more, in proportion as they 
are worthy of their work. The faithful and able teacher, says an old 
adage, is 'in loco parentis.' His charge certainly resembles the mother's 
care in this, that, if he be devoted to his task, you can measure neither 
the cost to him of the efforts which he makes, nor the debt of gratitude 
you owe him. The great poet of Italy — the profound and lofty Dante 
— had had for an instructor one whom, for a miserable vice, his poem 
places in the regions of the damned; and yet this lord of song — this 
prophet of all the knowledge of his time — this master of every gift that 
can adorn the human mind — when in those dreary regions he sees the 
known image of his lutor, avows in language of a magnificence all his 
own, that he cannot, even now, withhold his sympathy and sorrow from 
his unhappy teacher, for he recollects how, in the upper world, with 
a father's tender care, that teacher had pointed to him the way by which 
man becomes immortal. 

"Gentlemen, I have detained you long. Perhaps I have not had 
time to be brief; certainly I could have wished for much larger oppor- 
tunities of maturing and verifying what I have addressed to you upon 
subjects which have always possessed a hold on my heart, and have long 
had public and palpable claims on my attention.* Such as I have, I give. 
And now, finally, in bidding you "farewell, let me invoke every blessing 
upon your venerable University in its new career; upon the youth by 
whom its halls are gladdened, and upon the distinguished Head, and 
able teachers, by whom its places of authority are adorned." 



* Many years after this, Gladstone suggestively added this footnote to 
the published address: 

[As Representative for the University of Oxford, 1847-1865; dum fata 
De usque sinebant. — W. E. G., 1879.] 



CHAPTER XIX. 
GLADSTONE'S BUDGET OF i860. 

In spite of the increasingly autocratic manner and cynical temper 
of Lord Palmerston, Gladstone remained as Chancellor of the Ex- 
chequer, and in i860 he proposed a Budget which must always remain 
distinguished from others which he introduced, by the fact that it 
recognized the achievements of Richard Cobden. Cobden was an ad- 
mirable man for England at a time when Bright's eloquence and Glad- 
stone's enthusiasm were educating LiberaHsm. It was exceedingly 
fortunate that, while he was a Radical of the Radicals, he could meet 
such a man as the Emperor Napoleon and talk with him good-humored- 
ly and yet profoundly, until the outcome of it all was a commercial 
treaty between France and England by which a complete and rational 
understanding was arrived at and the honor of both nations preserved. 

Gladstone's Budget in i860 contained another thing of still greater 
importance. The French Government had now entered into an engage- 
ment looking toward free trade in staples raised or made by British 
hands. Now Gladstone proposed, in the interests of the public wanting 
intelligence, that the duty on paper should be abolished. Nothing that 
he ever undertook was more to his taste as a believer in the value of 
"light and leading" for the people of a constitutional Government, and 
nothing aroused a more pronounced opposition. The tremendous 
amount of money invested in the newspaper business made itself felt 
everywhere in antagonism to Gladstone's scheme. Journals which had 
professed to exist for the sake of educating the public hurled caustic 
diatribes against the proposer of this measure and against any kind 
of journalism which might come to the people cheaply, Gladstone knew 
that the reading public was behind him, and he saw that it was impossi- 
ble to have cheap news for the people so long as the imposition of this 
duty remained possible. His speech on the Budget of i860 takes a 
large place in every journal of the times. 

168 



GLADSTONE'S BUDGET OF i860. 169 

111 this speech, he spoke as follows with reference to France and 
the treaty: 

"L do not forget, sir, that there was once a time when close rela- 
tions of amity were established between the Governments of England 
and France. It was in the reign of the later Stuarts; it marks a dark 
spot in our annals; but the spot is dark because the union was an union 
formed in a spirit of domineering ambition on the one side, and of base 
and most corrupt servility on the other. But that, sir, was not a union 
of the nations; it was an union of the Governments. This is not to be 
an union of the Governments apart from the countries; it is, as we hope, 
to be an union of the nations themselves; and I confidently say again, 
as I have already ventured to say in this House, that there never can 
be any union between the nations of England and France, except an 
union beneficial to the world, because that directly one or the other 
of the two begins to harbor schemes of selfish aggrandizement, that 
moment the jealousy of its neighbor will be aroused, and will beget a 
powerful reaction; and the very fact of their being in harmony wall of 
itself at all times be the most conclusive proof that neither of them 
can be engaged in meditating anything which is dangerous to Europe." 

Every such collection of reminiscences as the Greville Memoirs 
indicates how greatly Gladstone had surprised England with the result 
of his commission as Commissioner to the Ionian Islands: The Gre- 
ville Memoirs perpetuate also the memory of Gladstone's speech: 

"Bath, February 15th: When I left London a fortnight ago the 
world was anxiously expecting Gladstone's speech in which he was to 
put the Commercial Treaty and the Budget before the world. His own 
confidence and that of most of his colleagues in his success was unbound- 
ed, but many inveighed bitterly against the treaty, and looked forward 
with great alarm and aversion to the Budget. Clarendon shook his 
head; Overstone pronounced against the Treaty, the 'Times' thun- 
dered against it, and there is little doubt that it was popular, and becom- 
ing more so every day. Then came Gladstone's unlucky illness, which 
compelled him to put off his expose, and made it doubtful whether he 
would not be physically disabled from doing justice to the subject. His 
doctor says he ought to have taken two months' rest instead of two 



I70 GLADSTONE: A BIOGRAPHICAL STUDY. 

days'. However, at the end of two days' delay he came forth, and 
consensu omnium 'achieved one of the greatest triumphs that the 
House of Commons ever witnessed. Everybody I have heard from ad- 
mits that it was a magnificent display, not to be surpassed in ability of 
execution, and that he carried the House of Commons completely with 
him. I can well believe it, for when I read the report of it the next day 
(a report I take to have given the speech verbatim) it carried me along 
with it likewise. For the moment opposition and criticism were 
silenced, and nothing was heard but the second praise and admiration. 
In a day or two, however, men began to disengage their minds from the 
bewitching influence of this great oratorical power, to examine calmly 
the different parts of the wonderful piece of machinery which Gladstone 
had constructed, and to detect and expose the weak points and objec- 
tionable provisions which it contained. I say it, for, as the Speaker 
writes me, it must be taken as a whole or rejected as a whole, and he adds 
the first will be its fate. 

"Clarendon, who has all along disapproved of the Treaty, wrote to 
me that Gladstone's success was complete, and public opinion in his 
favor. He says, 'I expect that the London feeling will be reflected 
from the country, so that there Vvdll be no danger of rejection, though I 
think that the more the whole thing is considered, the less popular it 
will become. The no-provision for the enormous deficit that will exist 
next year will strike people as well as the fact that the Budget is made 
up of expeditions for the present year. The non-payment of the Ex- 
chequer bonds is to all intents and purposes a loan; the war tax on tea 
and sugar, the windfall of the Spanish payment, the making the malt- 
sters and hopgrowers pay in advance, etc., are all stopgaps. If anybody 
purposes it, I shall not be surprised if an additional id Income Tax in 
place of the war duties was accepted by Gladstone. He has a fervent 
imagination, which furnishes facts and arguments in support of them; 
he is an audacious innovator, because he has an insatiable desire for 
popularity, in his notions of government he is a far more sincere Repub- 
lican than Bright, for his ungratified personal vanity makes him wish to 
subvert the institutions and the classes that stand in the way of his 
ambition. The two are converging from different points to the same 



GLADSTONE'S BUDGET OF i860. 171 

end, and if Gladstone remains in office long enough and is not more 
opposed by his colleagues than he has been hitherto, we shall see him 
propose a graduate Income Tax.' These are the only objections to 
the Budget, and speculations (curious ones) as to the character and 
purity of Gladstone. 

'Tn another note he says: 'Gladstone made a fair defense of the 
Treaty, though there are things in it which deserve the severest criticism 
and will get it, such as tying ourselves down about the exportation of 
coal (which is a munition of war), letting in French silks free, while ours 
are to pay thirty per cent, and estabhshing a differential duty of nearly 
fifty per cent in favor of light French wines against the stronger wines 
of Spain and Portugal, for that would be the operation of the Treaty.' 
Since all this was written there has been a meeting of the Conservative 
party, and I hear this morning that Derby has decided to take the field 
with all his forces, with a resolution against the condition about the 
exportation of coal, and confining himself to that, which will very likely 
be carried. On the other hand, the publicans and licensed victualers 
appear to be in arms against that part of the Budget which more im- 
mediately interests them, and are waging a fierce war in the press by 
their paper, the 'Morning Advertiser,' so that in spite of his great tri- 
umph and all the admiration of his eloquence and skill elicited, it is not 
all sunshine and plain sailing with his measure. Delane writes to me 
that Gladstone will find it hard work to get his Budget through, that 
Peel when he brought forward his Budget had a majority of ninety, all 
of which he required to do it, whereas Palmerston cannot command a 
majority of nine." 

Whatever the result, Gladstone's eloquence had achieved a new 
triumph. No richness of language or accuracy of scholarship, no 
breadth of thought or comprehensiveness of information, no fullest pas- 
sion for facts or industry in research, but that seemed to yield its trib- 
ute and its results to the orator, as he proceeded with his explanation, 
and met the excited anticipations of the country with a speech of the 
deepest historical value and of profound fiscal philosophy. 

Mr. Gladstone was above all else, an industrious man. His almost 
royal imagination gave him sovereignty over every theme, but it would 



172 GLADSTONE: A BIOGRAPHICAL STUDY. 

furnish only a sign of most pitiful weakness if it had not been true that 
his zeal and laboriousness were driven by some fortune of nature to the 
doing of those duties which oftentimes escape the attention of imagin- 
ative minds. 

Here stood the man, who, in the course of those very days, was din- 
ing and conversing with men who were fascinated by his discourse upon 
Homer, or stimulated and educated by his utterances on theological 
subjects; and now^ for hours in the Parliament of England, he was 
devoting the same gifts of thought, prophetic fancy and solid scholar- 
ship, to flax, hair, bark, stoneware, covenants, duties on wine, wool and 
annuities; and in all his long address, the marvelous collocation of 
powers shone forth and illuminated the subject itself and the minds 
of those who were trying to understand the finances of England. He 
concluded as follows: 

"Our proposals involve a great reform in our tariff; they involve a 
large remission of taxation, and last of all, though not least, they in- 
clude that commercial treaty with France which, though we have to 
apprehend that objections in some quarters will be taken to it, we con- 
fidently recommend, not only on moral, and social, and political, but 
also, and with equal confidence, on economical and fiscal grounds. 
. . . There were times, now long by, when Sovereigns made prog- 
ress through the land, and when, at the proclamation of their heralds, 
they caused to be scattered whole showers of coin among the people 
who thronged upon their steps. That may have been a goodly spec- 
tacle; but it is also a goodly spectacle, and one adapted to the altered 
spirit and circumstances of our times when our Sovereign is enabled, 
through the wisdom of her great Council, assembled in Parliament 
around her, again to scatter blessings among her subjects by means of 
wise and prudent laws; of which laws do not sap in any respects the 
foundations of duty or of manhood, but which strike away the shackles 
from the arm of industry, which give new incentives and new rewards to 
toil, and which win more and more for the Throne and for the institu- 
tions of the country the gratitude, the confidence and the love of an 
united people. Let me say, even to those who are anxious, and justly 
anxious, on the subject of our national defenses, that that which stirs the 



GLADSTONE'S BUDGET OF i860. 173 

flame of patriotism in men, that which binds them in one heart and 
soul, that which gives them increased confidence in their rulers, that 
which makes them feel and know that they are treated with justice, and 
that we who represent them are laboring incessantly and earnestly for 
their good — is in itself no small, no feeble, and no transitory part of na- 
tional defense. We recommend these proposals to your impartial and 
searching inquiry. We do not presume, indeed, to make a claim on 
your acknowledgments; but neither do we desire to draw on your un- 
requited confidence, nor to lodge an appeal to your compassion. We 
ask for nothing more than your dispassionate judgment, and for noth- 
ing less; we know that our plan will receive that justice at your hands; 
and we confidently anticipate on its behalf the approval alike of the 
Parliament and the Nation." 

Under date of February 26th, Greville makes the following entry 
with regard to Gladstone: 

"February 26th: On Friday night Gladstone had another great 
triumph. He made a splendid speech, and obtained a majority of 116, 
which put an end to the contest. He is now the great man of to-day, 
but these recent proceedings have strikingly displayed the disorganized 
condition of the Conservative party and their undisguised dislike of 
their leader. A great many of them voted with Government on Friday 
night, and more expressed satisfaction at the result being a defeat of 
Disraeli. The Treaty and the Budget, though many parts of both are 
obnoxious to criticism, more or less well founded, seem on the whole not 
unpopular, and since their first introduction to have undoubtedly gained 
in public favor. This fact and the state opposition prove the impos- 
sibility of any change of Government, Gladstone, too, as he is strong, 
seems disposed to be merciful, and has expressed his intention of taking 
fairly into consideration the various objections that may be brought 
forward, and to consent to reasonable alterations when good cases are 
made out for them. There seems no doubt that his great measures were 
not approved by the majority of the Cabinet, but the malcontents do not 
seem to have been disposed to fight much of the battle against the 
minority, which included both Palmerston and Lord John." 

It was not to be wondered at that the proprietors of newspapers 



174 GLADSTONE: A BIOGRAPHICAL STUDY. 

and the manufacturers of paper should still resolve to continue their 
opposition, and that, also, Gladstone's popularity should suffer amongst 
the favored population they represented. His majorities were sure to 
be lessening. Fifty-three votes carried the second reading; only nine 
were given for the third. The House of Lords, of course, were de- 
lighted, and the aged Lord Lyndhurst tottered to his place and joined 
with Lord Derby in beseeching the House of Lords to crush this in- 
strument of legislation which had been introduced in the interests of 
popular intelligence. 

Mr. 'Gladstone was making promises that all means should be tried 
and no power left unexhausted of its energies to preserve the friend- 
ship between England and France, and he went further than ever before 
in saying that he was desirous of reducing the military and naval 
armament of England when other nations would give the slightest 
testimony of their wish for peace. Disraeli had said that no govern- 
ment could raise seventy millions pounds a year constantly by taxation 
when the nation was enjoying peace. Cobden's treaty with France, 
which Gladstone did much to praise, had placed England upon a firmer 
foundation with reference to all future pacific measures. The House 
of Lords was still fighting the repeal of the Paper Tax which the House 
of Commons had authorized. Lord Palmerston was not content with 
the power which the House of Lords had wielded in this matter, and 
he moved a Committee to ascertain and report on the attitude of each 
House toward such questions, hoping that some arrangement might 
be made whereby the House of Lords could interfere with the results 
of agitation and the reform spirit which grievously irritated these 
excellent persons. 

John Bright's attack upon the House of Lords as a body willing 
to exceed the provisions of the English Constitution, unable, however, 
to feimpose a tax which had been repealed by the House of Commons, 
was said to have been seconded by Gladstone himself. But many 
who were posing as the amiable friends of a man perfectly able to take 
care of himself, explained that Gladstone had done it only to please 
Bright and the Radicals. 

The hour now came for monster meetings everywhere, and the 



GLADSTONE'S BUDGET OF i860. 175 

nation uttered a protest against the House of Lords. Palmerston 
was obdurate and desired evidently to stifle the rising spirit of the 
people. Placards all over London announced the aggression of the 
House of Lords in bold letters, and with much display of brilliant ink. 
From thousands of throats came the uttered cry that the House of 
Lords must be abolished. Gladstone was being educated for events 
twenty years away. The Lords had thrown out the Paper Duty Bill 
and had aroused the country against themselves. Gladstone made 
a speech in which he scored Lord Palmerston with merciless invective, 
and even Lord Russell called it "magnificently mad." England was in 
a tumult, and opinion swayed back and forth, as it had in May, when 
Greville placed the following item in his journal, with reference to the 
reaction against Gladstone: 

"May I2th: Not more than three months ago Gladstone was 
triumphant and jubilant; he had taken the House of Commons and 
the country captive by his eloquence, and nothing was heard every- 
where but songs of praise and admiration at his marvelous success 
and prodigious genius. There never was a greater reaction in a 
shorter time. Everybody's voice is now against him, and his famous 
Treaty and his Budget are pronounced enormous and dangerous 
blunders. Those who were most captivated now seem to be most 
vexed and ashamed of their former fascination. They are provoked 
with themselves for having been so duped, and a feeling of resent- 
ment and bitterness against him has become widely difTused in and 
out of the House of Commons, on his own side as well as on the 
other. It was the operation of this feeling which caused the narrow 
majority on the Paper Duties the other night, when it seems as if 
a little more management and activity might have put him in a minor- 
ity, and it is the same thing which is now encouraging the House 
of Lords, urged on by Derby, to throw out the resolution 
when it comes before them. Derby has announced that he shall exert 
himself to the utmost to procure the rejection of the Bill in the House 
of Lords, and if he perseveres he will probably obtain a very unwise 
and perilous success, which he will before long have to regret." 

It was of little account now that Gladstone denounced the action 



176 GLADSTONE: A BIOGRAPHICAL STUDY. 

of the House of Lords as "a gigantic innovation," or that Lord 
Palmerston did not himself Hke it. Things were in transition, and 
it looked as though Gladstone, in his journey from pole to pole in poli- 
tics, was going so swiftly that, as one of his old friends said: "He 
could not take time to stop at the station called Whig Politics in his 
flight from Conservatism to Liberalism." Certain it is that the Radi- 
cals were most proud of his utterance, though he had a faith that the 
House of Lords might recover its reason, which Radicals did not have. 
Palmerston. was angered by Gladstone, and Radicalism read and reread 
the words the latter spoke with reference to Cobden. 

Meanwhile Disraeli was shrewd enough to see that though, in 
the year i860, Gladstone had succeeded in carrying his Resolution 
for removing as much of the Customs Duty on imported paper as 
exceeded the Excise Duty on paper manufactured in England, and 
though the Government had abandoned their Reform Bill and brought 
in another on the first of March, his condemnation could not wisely 
shut out the possibility of his introducing a Reform Bill at a later 
date, which would dazzle, if not please, the Radicals, more truly than 
any which Gladstone's genius had supported. Bright and Cobden 
were ever faithful to Lord John Russell's scheme of Reform. Disraeli 
talked about it as "a measure of a mediaeval character without the 
inspiration of a feudal system or the genius of the middle ages," and 
Lord Palmerston did not care what become of it. It was not long 
before Palmerston's supporters concluded that he would like to see 
it defeated. Gladstone's old friend at Christchurch, Oxford, George 
Cornewall Lewis, made a speech for the Bill which brought out all the 
characteristics of a nature strongly influential and strangely different 
from the nature of Gladstone. The novelist, Bulwer-Lytton, spoke 
of Lewis' speech as one which proved that he had "come to bury 
Caesar, not to praise him." The session was rapidly drifting into a 
debating school in which the chief result was the consumption of time. 
At last the whole affair became ludicrous and Lord John Russell 
announced the withdrawal of the Bill on June nth. 




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THE EARL OF DERBY 



CHAPTER XX. 
THE BUDGET OF 1861. 

The Session of 1861 opened on the 5th of February, and all London 
crowded to Buckingham Palace to cheer the Queen on her way to the 
Houses of Parliament. Great questions were to come up, and they 
came close to Mr. Gladstone's heart. The existence of a national 
church was connected with the question of church rates, and in 
defense of the latter, Mr. Gladstone spoke so powerfully that the 
Opposition cheered loudly. In this he found himself opposed to his 
colleague, Lord John Russell. 

April 15, the Chancellor of the Exchequer offered his annual finan- 
cial statement. He had a surplus of nearly 2,000,000 pounds for their 
rejoicing. His propositions came, one after the other, in precise and 
eloquent language, but the public was not willing for another Bill to 
be sent up for the repeal of the paper duties, if that Bill was to be 
rejected in the House of Lords. Gladstone, throughout his dealing 
with the subject, seemed to feel behind him the majority of the English 
people. These are some of his utterances: 

We have seen this country during the last few years without European 
war, but under a burden of taxation, such as, out of a European war, it was 
never called upon to bear; we have also seen it last year under the pressure 
of a season of blight, such as hardly any living man can recollect; yet, on 
looking abroad over the face of England, no one is sensible of any signs of 
decay, least of all can such an apprehension be felt with regard to those at- 
tributes which are perhaps the highest of all, and on which most of all 
depends our national existence — die spirit and courage of the country. It is 
needless to say that neither the sovereign on the throne, nor the nobles and 
the gentry that fill the place of the gallant chieftains of the Middle Ages, 
nor the citizens who represent the invincible soldiery of Cromwell, nor the 
peasantry who are the children of those sturdy archers that drew the cross- 
bows of England in the fields of France — none of these betray either inclina- 
12 177 



178 GLADSTONE: A BIOGRAPHICAL STUDY. 

tion or tendency to depart from the tradition of their forefathers. If there 
be' any danger which has recently in ap especial manner beset us, I confess 
that, though it may be owing to some peculiarity in my position, or some 
weakness in my vision, it has seemed to me to be, during recent years 
chiefly, in our proneness to constant, and apparently almost boundless, aug- 
mentations of expenditure, and in the consequences that are associated with 
them. * * =i= Sir^ j do trust that the day has come when a check has 
begun to be put to the movement in this direction; and I think, as far as I 
have been able to trace the sentiments of the House, and the indica- 
tions of general opinion during the present session, that the tendency to 
which I have adverted is at least partially on the decline. I trust it will alto- 
gether subside and disappear. The spirit of the people is excellent. There 
never was a nation in the whole history of the world more willing to bear 
the heavy burdens under which it lies — more generously disposed to over- 
look the errors of those who have the direction of its affairs. For my 
own part, I hold that, if this country can steadily and constantly remain 
as wise in the use of her treasure as she is unrivaled in its production, and 
as moderate in the exercise of her strength as she is rich in its possession, 
that we may well cherish the hope that there is yet reserved for England a 
great work to do on her own part and on the part of others, and that for 
many a generation yet to come she will continue to hold a foremost place 
among the nations of the world. 

He had met a scene the like of which he had not hitherto beheld, 
even in the hours of his supreme mastery of public opinion in England. 
For long hours before the moment arrived for Gladstone's appearance, 
St. Stephen's had been besieged by a crowd, the hall was thronged by 
persons who had tickets and by those who had none, and thousands 
had gone without the mid-day meal with the hope that somehow there 
might be room for them within the sound of the Chancellor's voice. 
He had spoken and triumphed. 

Perhaps the presentation of this Budget furnishes the student of 
oratory with the best specimen of Gladstone's eloquence in the direction 
of lucidity of statement in explanation of financial problems. 

After a severe struggle, he accomplished what was a virtual defeat 
of the aristocracy. Mr. Gladstone was attacked most violently by Lord 
Robert Cecil, and his plans were nearly defeated while Daly, the priest, 
was attempting to force Irish Liberal members into their support of 



THE BUDGET OF 1861. 179 

the Conservative party. Tlie peers were defeated, and Mr, Disraeli 
was with them. 

Gladstone was the first man, after the decease of the younger Pitt, 
who gave England the consciousness that she possessed the greatest 
Finance Minister in the world, and John Bull, shopkeeper and banker, 
exchanger and fiscal actuary for the most of this planet of ours, has 
not failed to appreciate these men whose lives present many points 
by which they may be compared or contrasted. Each of them was 
born amidst circumstances almost determining the political character 
of his career, Lord Chatham being scarcely more eager and confident 
that the son whose education in affairs, patriotism and eloquence he 
himself had directed, should rise to prominence as a statesman, than 
Sir John Gladstone was ambitious and hopeful that his son should 
prove an effective, if not unequaled champion of the Toryism which 
was as dear to him as his religious faith. Both these young men were 
prodigies in mental power and equipment, though in precocity Pitt 
outstripped Gladstone, having been made Chancellor of the Exchequer 
at twenty-three, whereas Gladstone did not reach that position until he 
was above forty. It must be said in favor of the latter, that he had no 
George III., whom he was speedily to teach by eloquent opposition, 
whom another Pitt could amaze by refusing office unless he should 
have a Cabinet seat under some Rockingham, nor had Pitt found, as 
did Gladstone, a master hand upon affairs, such as Sir Robert Peel, 
able to conduct a government with astuteness and power. Pitt came 
upon English politics after a revolution in France which had made 
English politicians look with something of prayerful concern for bright 
and patriotic young men, and he had entered his public career when 
another revolution, brought about by America, left a huge debt for 
England to pay which would have staggered anything but that kind of 
"youth," which, Disraeli says, "is genius." Gladstone, on the con- 
trary, found these matters as quiet and settled as if they had belonged 
to the policies of Rome under Augustus, a consummate politician 
and adroit leader of men was at the helm, and before England stretched 
the golden days consequent upon the triumph of the Reform Bill. 
It is interesting to note, however, that Pitt's opposition to the Toryism 



l8o GLADSTONE: A BIOGRAPHICAL STUDY. 

of the Crown and the Ministers, in fact, Pitt's Whiggery, was pro- 
phetic of Gladstone's LiberaHsm. 

The former Hterally compelled Toryism to confess his general 
usefulness, after he had antagonized the King's insatiable desire for war, 
battled for retrenchment in public expenditure, championed Par- 
liamentary Reform, struggled against the corrupt forces at the Court 
and urged the abbreviation of Parliamentary sessions. Never, as many 
historians remark, did Reform come so near to victory, before Glad- 
stone's day, as it did on one of Pitt's motions. 

Both of these men entered Parliamentary life as remarkable speak- 
ers. Classical training and close study of mathematics, enormous his- 
torical reading and rare familiarity with the poetry of ancient and 
modern times were, despite Pitt's ill health, allied in each with supple 
and impressive physical presence, excellent if not remarkable voice and 
graceful manner, fervent imagination and taste for argumentation, to 
furnish an orator of the highest type. Gladstone, however, possessed 
a wealth of fancy and impulsive audacity in contention, characteristic 
of Chatham rather than of his calmer and more resourceful son. Each 
of these young debaters soon made St. Stephen's echo rotund and 
stately sentences, and both Pitt and Gladstone had not to speak often 
in the House of Commons until the imperial manner of their address, 
the towering sarcasm of the one or the general loftiness of the other, 
brought the charge of intolerable arrogance and haughty conceit. If 
Pitt was cold and used a keener blade with dauntless equanimity, Glad- 
stone was to be radiant and impassioned, even so hot, that his sword, 
once bathed in fiery zeal, illumined while it burned in the air of dis- 
cussion. If each had come panoplied with culture and masterful of 
accomplishment in matters of Church and State, Pitt was more often 
to treat the Church as a statesman, Gladstone was to deal with the 
State more frequently as a churchman. Indeed, Gladstone never got 
out of the mood which early beset him and made him desire to enter 
holy orders. He often preached as well in the House of Commons, as 
once he did, at King's College for his Episcopal friend. The home of 
■Pitt and the home of Gladstone were gymnasia for the development 
of every noble characteristic of their eloquence and every generous 



THE BUDGET OF 1861. 181 

impulse of their souls. Music and illustrious friendships, the admira- 
tion of art and the love of high aims, had given to their youth the 
domain best calculated to foster the most exquisite taste and reverence 
for the good and true. 

Pitt studied finance with Adam Smith as the apostle of a better 
political economy; Gladstone learned to formulate a Budget at the 
feet of that successful business-man, his father. Sir John Gladstone. 
The one could never see why Adam Smith's theories would not pay 
England's debt or secure England's financial ascendancy; the other 
could never comprehend why the principles which had made Sir John 
Gladstone's business career successful, should not, if applied to the 
commercial undertakings and problems of the English nation, produce 
sufiticient revenues and enrich the realm. At first, it appeared strange 
to dull-eyed aristocrats that Pitt's cultured mind should bend so low 
as to deal with facts and figures; at first, Gladstone's lively imagination 
and classical lore appeared a team of racers trying to do the work of 
cart-horses in laboring with finance. But both these men knew that 
statesmanship is not altogether eloquence or poetry. In each of them 
was a spinal column of inflexible good sense, and England forgives 
much in them because they triumphed in finance. 

Each came to public life, the one in Fox's time, the other in 
Byron's, to offer to his country what neither of these could present, the 
gift of pure personal character. Both had read much theology. Pitt 
had, it is said, found more questions started by Butler's Analogy than 
that excellent treatise answered; Gladstone spent his declining years 
in the pious labor of giving to it lucid exposition. Pitt, as a young 
man, was reverent and moral; Gladstone w^as always devoted and 
deeply religious. Morals without religion proved "broken cisterns 
which could hold no water." Intellectually, Pitt was ever a Cambridge 
man; Gladstone struggled, like Milton's lion, "to get free" from Ox- 
ford, and made a lifelong work of it, which was finally crowned with 
triumph, though only a Gladstone, even at the last, could have con- 
vinced him of this fact. 

Gladstone never would have taken the post of Prime Minister, as 
did Pitt, when the latter was offered it for the second time and accepted 



i82 GLADSTONE: A BIOGRAPHICAL STUDY. 

it for the first time, for it came to Pitt as the result of an act of royal 
bad faith. Gladstone never took a Lord Temple upon his laborious 
shoulders, as did Chatham's son. Pitt was Gladstone's equal in his 
ability to withstand abuse. Everything, however, consists in how a 
thing is done, and Pitt was Gladstone's inferior in possessing the moral 
power from which assailants retire as cowards. The first was self- 
confident, haughty and wary; the second was confident of the sure 
basis of justice, uiflexible as truth, and he risked all with an impulsive 
carelessness which tried friend and foe alike. Pitt contrasted his in- 
dubitable purity in the Pells Clerkship case with the unblushing cor- 
ruption of the Court. He was, perhaps, as sagacious, however, as he 
was stainless. His defeat of foes which crowded to hurl him from 
power can be matched only by Gladstone's overwhelming entrance 
to power when Disraeli fell. He could handle a jumble of elements, 
as Gladstone drove his famous "four-in-hand," — and each confounded 
Toryism with a noble disregard of privileged classes. Such a personal 
quarrel as that of Pitt with Fox was impossible to Gladstone, but such 
triumphs as his in finance were the glory of the later commoner. Each 
stoutly protected the pubhc credit; each hated magic in fiscal economy; 
but while Pitt felt with no deterring force the fact that the future of a 
country ought not to be mortgaged by the debts incurred in the past, 
Gladstone insisted that the expense of the Crimean War should be paid 
at once. No such indictment of the latter's career has ever been offered 
as that which was framed against Pitt in these well-known words: 
"Mr. Pitt's memory needs no statues. Six hundred millions of irre- 
deemable debt are the eternal record of his fame." Pitt, however, was 
a prophet. He foretold Cobden's victory; he hopefully looked toward 
free trade. Gladstone came and made its statutes work with ease. 
In both cases, the fathers of these sons, Chatham and Sir John Glad- 
stone, had to be thrown overboard, for they were Protectionists. Pitt 
might have written Gladstone's great words which helped to bind 
France and England together, not as grappling foes, but as friendly 
states, and, adopting Adam Smith's opinions, Pitt fought for free trade, 
except in corn, for Ireland against her own Burke. On the subject of 
Padiamentary Reform, high office made Pitt timid and Gladstone fear- 



THE BUDGET OF 1861. * 183 

less. He created peers, seven scores of them. Gladstone also created 
peers, but he sent up to the Lords his measures which shook their House 
with peril. Pitt made them for votes; Gladstone defied them, refused 
to be made an earl, and was content with defeat. Gladstone honored 
the great men of Hterature, and educated the populace. Pitt did neither. 
Pitt taxed the newspapers; Gladstone removed the duty on paper. 
The former, however, reformed the shameless Libel Law, and gave 
Eldon to England, to reform other legislation, while he dealt unsparing 
blows against slavery, whose horrors Gladstone forgot when he said 
Jefferson Davis had created a new nation. The Tests Act, which he 
kept in force, Gladstone repealed. Catholic Emancipation, which Pitt 
at first favored, was to come in Gladstone's full noonday. 

Greater still is the contrast, the one tottering to his grave, prema- 
turely aged and worn, the other young, and buoyant at eighty. Pitt 
was affrighted at Liberalism as it came out of the wreck of the French 
Revolution, and at length he leaned toward war with France. The 
war came, but not as expected. He attacked the liberty of speech 
and writing in England. The Habeas Corpus Act was suspended. 
Ireland and Scotland knew a veritable reign of terror. Gladstone 

^failed, it may be, as a War Minister, for he was a man of peace. 

■ William Pitt failed as a War Minister, without the loss of a single good 
intention. He at last disclaimed friendship for Catholic Emancipation. 
The war went on. In certain aspects it was a great war, but in the 
glory of Wellington's victory, it must be remembered that Pitt had lost 
faith in the powers which alone will conquer Bonapartism. Without the 
deepest confidence in them, and without the unswerving devotion to 
them w^hich alone brings deepest confidence in the necessary and there- 
fore ultimate triumph of the principles of free government, Pitt's heart 
w^as broken by the specter of Napoleon at Austerlitz; Gladstone, on the 
other hand, saw specter after specter appear in defeat after defeat, and so 
sure was he that the evolution under God of "the parliament of man, the 
federation of the world" is hastening that nothing could break that tire- 
less, dauntless heart. 

The Budget of 1862 again brought Gladstone to the front as a 
great Finance Minister, a greater orator, and a man more certain 



i84 GLA-DSTONE: A BIOGRAPHICAL STUDY. 

than ever that the House of Lords would make itself impossible in 
England if it continued in its career of obstruction. England was 
proud and almost self-glorious when, in early May, 1862, the great 
Crystal Palace Exhibition was opened. A deep shadow lay upon the 
British public mind, which came from the fact that the Prince Consort 
had suddenly terminated his career just when the prospects of this 
enterprise were most bright. 

Early in 1863 Dean Stanley was his guest and the following account 
of the visit is taken, by permission, from "The Life and Letters of Dean 
Stanley," published by Charles Scribner's Sons: 

"When I arrived, there were only the two little Gladstone boys 
there — at tea — Herbert and Henry — good little creatures. They were 
in some alarm at having dropped some jam onto the crystalline butter- 
bowl. But I managed to mop it up with my pocket-handkerchief. 

"After dinner the subject of subscription was introduced. We went 
on discussing it tih after the ladies were gone and on till 12:30 P. M. 
(sic). It was an immense relief to me. Gladstone was most satisfac- 
tory. If he were to say publicly what he said privately, the question 
would be settled. I was extremely glad to have the opportunity of 
giving him all my mind; and he, lending himself to it with the astound- 
ing readiness which he has, completely understood everything which 
I said. 

"What made all this profusion of talk the more remarkable was, 
that he was full of the Budget, which comes on next Thursday." 



CHAPTER XXL 

THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR. 

It would be a delight if an American student, rejoicing up to this 
point in that continuously advancing Americanism which was at last 
the salt that lost not its savor in Mr. Gladstone's politics and prophe- 
cies, might leave out of a chronicle such as this any account of a most 
strange wandering upon his part, when the life of the American Union 
was trembling in the balance and all the principles which later on Glad- 
stone espoused and defended were waging a fierce battle against armed 
foes. Not only was the experiment of American self-government on 
trial, but the very chrysalis in which these energies were working for 
finer and larger results for all humanity was threatened. Gladstone's 
biographers in England have not truly estimated the righteous indigna- 
tion felt by American lovers of constitutional government, when, from 
across the sea, there came such formidable prophecies of our national 
ruin as could only carry wildest hope into the bosoms of the foes of 
our Government. More than this was involved in the Civil War in 
America, for that contest was to decide whether the institution of 
slavery should be made into a cornerstone for a political temple, or 
whether, in the name of civilization and humanity, it should be crushed 
to pieces. The English Government had looked upon the election 
of Abraham Lincoln as an event of too slight importance to justify the 
Southern States in commencing war, but they had seen the South open 
hostilities. English publicists like John Stuart Mill and Thomas 
Hughes, writers like Harriet Martineau, and reformers like Clarkson, 
Wilberforce and George Thompson, had warned England that the 
curse of human slavery was determined to arrogate to itself'new terri- 
tory at all costs. Upon the proposition that no more territory should be 
given to slavery, Mr. Lincoln was elected. Sumter had been fired 
upon and the war of secession was begun. Lord John Russell, in the 

185 



i86 GLADSTONE: A BIOGRAPHICAL STUDY, 

House of Commons, on the i8th of May, 1861, announced that "after 
consulting the law officers of the Crown, the Government were of opin- 
ion that the Southern Confederacy must be recognized as a belligerent 
power." The Neutrality Proclamation was made May 13th. The 
Government of England warned all Her Majesty's subjects from enlist- 
ing on either side or giving aid or comfort to either contestant. The 
English Government did not wait for the arrival of the new American 
Minister, Mr. Charles Francis Adams, that they might be informed upon 
the merits of the question as to whether this proclamation ought to be 
issued. Even Mr. Forster made the mistake of supposing that this was 
an announcement of war, and if there were no war recognized, neither 
would the blockade of Southern ports by the Northern powers be 
recognized by anybody. The air became filled with a confusion of 
voices. Lancashire had the ear of Gladstone, and he saw mills, which 
depended upon the export of cotton from America to England, shut 
down, and the working people were in dire distress. John Bright saw 
more clearly than the philosophy of the soup-kitchens which were 
established all through Lancashire to relieve the working people whom 
the war in the United States had deprived of the opportunity of labor. 
He counseled and guided them rmtil they arose with the spirit of 
humanity to a height not usually reached by our race. Lord Palmers- 
ton waited as long as he could, and at last took an attitude in which 
he exploded his wa-ath and displayed haughtily the banner of England 
in the face of America. Steadily America and England looked for 
Gladstone to speak, and he spoke not. At last, at Newcastle-on-Tyne, 
October 9th, 1862, he said, with more than his usual solemnity and 
dogmatism: "Jefferson Davis has made a new nation; he has made an 
army; he has made a navy," and he loaned his eloquence to the idea 
that the experiment of free government in America had so far failed. 
Gladstone's speech was of great service to the American people only in 
this, that it made the North review carefully the reasons for previous 
action, and settled without question the conviction of the advocates of 
the Union that, while a great man had gone wrong in England, they 
were right in America. It is not remarkable that at such a crisis in 
our affairs the spirit embodied in Charles Sumner should be perplexed 



TPIE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR. 187 

at the attitude of England. An excellent account of Sumner's mind 
and movements on this topic is given in the valuable biography of the 
American Senator by his friend, Edward L. Pierce. Here we find that 
Sumner addressed Mr. Bright, July 21, as follows: 

"I have read the debate of the 30th of June. Your last words 
touched the whole question to the quick. The guilt of this attempt 
is appalling; but next to the slave-mongers is England with a grinning 
neutrahty. My friend Mr. Gladstone dealt with the whole question 
as if there w^ere no God. Englishmen may doubt. I tell you, there can 
be but one end to this w^ar. I care not for any temporary success of 
the slave-mongers, they must fail; but English sympathy is a mighty 
encouragement. You will note our success in the Southwest; every- 
thing there is against the rebellion. There is a pretty good reason to 
believe that Charleston will soon be ours. Lee's army has lost thirty 
thousand men, and I am inclined to think now must be much demoral- 
ized. We are too victorious; I fear more from our victories than our 
defeats. If the rebellion should suddenly collapse, Democrats, copper- 
heads, and Seward would insist upon amnesty and the Union, and 'no 
question asked about slavery.' God save us from such calamity! If 
Lee's army had been smashed, that question would have been upon 
us. Before this comes, I wish two hundred thousand negroes with 
muskets in their hands, and then I shall not fear compromise. Time 
is essential; so great a revolution cannot come to a close at once." 

Men who had watched his growth from Conservatism in the di- 
rection of Liberalism were startled and deeply grieved at Gladstone's 
taking a position so indefensible. Nothing better was expected of 
Palmerston, but it was thought that Gladstone would walk with Cob- 
den and Bright in unfaltering fidelity to the interests of freedom. 

Another great result helpful to the cause of the Union in America 
which Gladstone's unfortunate speech brought about was this, that 
every such orator as John Bright found his speech more intelligent and 
comprehensive in eloquence than ever before and gladly gave its rich- 
ness and power to the cause of liberty. Bright spoke in reply to Glad- 
stone at Birmingham on December i8th, and among other things he 
said: 



i88 GLADSTONE: A BIOGRAPHICAL STUDY. 

"I am very happy that, though the Chancellor of the Exchequer 
is able to decide to a penny what shall be the amount of taxes to 
meet public expenditure in England, he cannot decide what shall be 
the fate of a whole continent. 

"I say, it is the home of the working man; as one of her poets re- 
cently said: 

'For her free latch-string never was drawn in 
Against the poorest child of Adam's kin.' 

"And in that land there is no six milhons of grown men — I speak of 
the Free States — excluded from the constitution of their country and its 
electoral franchise; there you will find a free church, a free school, 
free land, a free vote, and a free career for the child of the humblest 
born in the land. My countrymen, who work for your living, remember 
this; there will be one wild shriek of freedom to startle all mankind 
if that American Republic should be overthrown. 

"Now for one moment let us lift ourselves, if we can, above the 
narrow circle in which we are too often apt to live and think; let us 
put ourselves on an historical eminence, and judge this matter fairly. 
Slavery has been, as we all know, the huge foul blot upon the fame 
of the American Republic; it is a hideous outrage against human right 
and against Divine law, but the pride, the passion of man, will not 
permit its peaceable extinction. The slave-owners in our colonies, if 
they had been strong enough, would have revolted too. I believe 
there was no mode short of a miracle more stupendous than any re- 
corded in Holy Writ that could in our time or in a century, or in any 
time, have brought about the abolition of slavery in America, but the 
suicide which the South has committed and the war which it has 
begun. 

"I blame men who are eager to admit into the family of nations a 
State which offers itself to us, based upon a principle, I will undertake 
to say, more odious and more blasphemous than was ever before 
dreamed of in Christian or Pagan, in civilized or in savage times. The 
leader of this revolt proposes this monstrous thing — that over a ter- 
ritory forty times as large as England the blight and curse of slavery 



THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR. 189 

shall be forever perpetuated. I can not believe, for my part, that such 
a fate shall befall that fair land, stricken though it now is with the 
ravages of war. I cannot believe that civilization, in its journey with 
the sun, will sink into endless night in order to gratify the ambition of 
the leaders of this revolt, who seek to 

'Wade through slaughter to a throne. 
And shut the gates of mercy on mankind.' 

"I have another and a far brighter vision before my gaze. It may 
be but a vision, but I will cherish it. I see one vast confederation 
stretching from the frozen North in unbroken line to the glowing 
South, and from the wald billows of the Atlantic westward to the 
calmer waters of the Pacific main — and I see one people, and one lan- 
guage, and one law, and one faith, and, over that wide continent, the 
home of freedom, and a refuge for the oppressed of every race and of 
every clime." 

For such a speech as this Gladstone had no rejoinder. 

The aspect of things was transformed by the autumn of 1863. Mr. 
Bright wrote to Sumner, September nth: 

'Tt would be curious to have a speech from Gladstone now. Per- 
haps he is beginning to doubt whether Jeff Davis has made a nation. 
There is much cleverness mixed with little wisdom, or much folly, 
in some men, and our Chancellor seems to be one of them. I think 
I shall make a selection from the writings of the Times' and the 
speeches of our public men, and publish them, that their ignorance and 
folly may not be forgotten." 

No one has more thoroughly regretted Gladstone's lapse from the 
high confidence to which he had been growing and which ultimately 
enabled him to adopt the ideas of Home Rule for Ireland than did 
Gladstone himself. Five years elapsed, and to a New York corre- 
spondent he made acknowledgment of his error. 'T must confess," he 
wrote, "that I was wrong; that I took too much upon myself in ex- 
pressing such an opinion. Yet the motive was not bad. My sympathies 
were then — where they had long before been, where they are now — 
with the whole American people. I, probably, like many Europeans, 



190 GLADSTONE: A BIOGRAPHICAL STUDY. 

did not understand the nature and workings of the American Union. 
I had imbibed, consciously, if erroneously, an opinion that twenty or 
twenty-four millions of the North would be happier and would be 
stronger (of course assuming that they would hold together) without 
the South than with it, and also that the negroes would be much nearer 
to emancipation under a Southern Government than under the old 
system of the Union, which had not at that date (August, 1862) been 
abandoned, and which always appeared to me to place the whole power 
of the North at the command of the slave-holding interests of the 
South. As far as regards the special or separate interest of England 
in the matter, I, differing from many others, had always contended 
that it was best for our interest that the Union should be kept entire." 

It is absurd to attempt an apology for Mr. Gladstone which does 
not at once invite the force of the usual remark, oftentimes made so 
justly with reference to him and his career: "Here is Oxford scholasti- 
cism in the role of an explanation." 

It is a delight to turn from such a page as this in Gladstone's his- 
tory, to one of the greatest of the American periodicals to which he 
afterwards contributed and find him face to face with the future of 
America, himself a thoroughgoing Englishman, but withal a philoso- 
pher and prophet of a statesmanship to which in 1863 he was partially 
a stranger. 

"There were the strongest reasons why America could not 
grow into a reflection or repetition of England. Passing from a 
narrow island to a continent almost without bounds, the colonists at 
once and vitally altered their conditions of thought, as well as of exist- 
ence, in relation to the most important and most operative of all social 
facts, the possession of the soil. In .England, inequality lies imbedded 
in the very base of the social structure; in America it is a late, incidental, 
unrecognized product, not of tradition, but of industry and wealth, as 
they advance with various and, of necessity, unequal steps. Heredity, 
seated as an idea in the heart's core of Englishmen, and sustaining far 
more than it is sustained by those of our institutions which express it, 
was as truly absent from the intellectual and moral store, with which 
the colonists traversed the Atlantic, as if it had been some forgotten 



THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR. 191 

article in the bills of lading that made up their cargoes. Equality com- 
bined with liberty, and renewable at each descent from one generation 
to another, like a lease with stipulated breaks, was the groundwork of 
their social creed. In vain was it sought, by arrangements such as those 
connected with the name of Baltimore or of Penn, to qualify the action 
of those overpowering forces which so determined the case. Slavery 
itself, strange as it now may seem, failed to impair the theory however 
it may have imported into the practice a hideous solecism. No hardier 
republicanism was generated in New England than in the Slave States 
of the South, which produced so many of the great statesmen of 
America." 

Coming to our Civil War, he said: 

"The Civil War compelled the States, both North and South, to train 
and embody a million and a half of men, and to present to view the 
greatest, instead of the smallest, armed forces in the world. Here 
there was supposed to arise a double danger. First that, on a sudden 
cessation of the war, military life and habits could not be shaken off, 
and, having become rudely and widely predominant, would bias the 
country towards an aggressive policy, or, still worse, would find vent in 
predatory or revolutionary operations. Secondly, that a military caste 
would grow up with its habits of exclusiveness and command, and 
would influence the tone of politics in a direction adverse to republican 
freedom. But both apprehensions proved to be wholly imaginary. 
The innumerable soldiery was at once dissolved. Cincinnatus, no longer 
an unique example, became the commonplace of every day, the type 
and mold of a nation. The whole enormous mass quietly resumed the 
habits of social life. The generals of yesterday were the editors, the 
secretaries, and the solicitors of to-day. The just jealousy of the State 
gave life to the now forgotten maxim of Judge Blackstone, who de- 
nounced as perilous the erection of a separate profession of arms in a 
free country. The standing army, expanded by the heat of civil contest 
to gigantic dimensions, settled down again into the framework of a 
miniature with the returning temperature of civil life, and became a 
power well nigh invisible, from its minuteness, amidst the powers which 
sway the movements of a society exceeding forty millions. 

"More remarkable still was the financial sequel to the great conflict. 



192 GLADSTONE: A BIOGRAPHICAL STUDY. 

The internal taxation for Federal purposes, which before its commence- 
ment had been unknown, was raised, in obedience to an exigency of 
life and death, so as to exceed every present and every past example. 
It pursued and worried all the transactions of life. The interest of the 
American debt grew to be the highest in the world, and the capital 
touched five hundred and sixty millions sterling. Here was provided for 
the faith and patience of the people a touchstone of extreme severity. 
In England, at the close of the great French war, the propertied classes, 
who were supreme in Parliament, at once rebelled against the Tory 
Government, and refused to prolong the Income Tax even for a single 
year. We talked big, both then and now, about the payment of our 
National Debt; but sixty-three years have since elapsed, all of them 
except two called years of peace, and we have reduced the huge total 
by about one-ninth." 

Thus he concluded: 

"But I will not cloSe this paper without recording my conviction that 
the great acts, and the great forbearances, which immediately followed 
the close of the Civil War form a group which will ever be a noble ob- 
ject, in his political retrospect, to the impartial historian; and that, pro- 
ceeding as they did from the free choice and conviction of the people, 
and founded as they were on the very principles of which the multitude is 
supposed to be least tolerant, they have, in doing honor to the United 
States, also rendered a splendid service to the general cause of popular 
government throughout the world." 

One of these great acts of forbearance was made easy by the devel- 
opment of Americanism in Gladstone himself. 

On September 7, in 1864, we find Gladstone welcoming Garibaldi to 
London. Earlier than this, in a long and keen correspondence in- 
volving Lord Shrewsbury, Anthony Panizzi and Mr. Gladstone in 
controversy, this lover of liberty, perhaps recently trained to step to 
the larger music of freedom with his unfortunate experience with the 
American war, had given adequate expression to his sympathy for the 
struggles of the Italian people toward emancipation and unity. Glad- 
stone had shown himself intelligent upon the general theme of Italian 
patriotism in a review on the Roman State, published years before. 




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THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR. 193 

In all these years, Gladstone's mind was being trained to say of 
Garibaldi, Cavour and Victor Emmanuel: "These three names together 
form for Italians a tricolor as brilliant, as ever fresh, and, I hope, as 
enduring, for many and many generations, as that national flag which 
now waves over a united Italy." Years before, in his denunciation of 
the Neapolitan government, he had shown his intrepidity by snatching 
a phrase which he heard from the lips of an oppressed people: ''La 
Negazions di Dio Eretta a Sistena di Governo." By his indomitable 
will and the force of his shining character, he had commanded the atten- 
tion of civilization, until the world believed that his indictment against 
Italian misrule was proved in every count. It was but the beginning 
of a long crusade in which the Italian people themselves were most 
heroic, and which was now concluded amidst the acclamations of a free 
and united people. 

It became certain that the genius of Lord Palmerston, assertive, 
narrowly British, and commanding as it was, no longer represented the 
widest vision of the modern Englishman. He was a bluff aristocrat, de- 
clining the appearance of enthusiasm by visiting it with the theories of 
the race-course. He blustered, and for a long time attracted ordinary 
citizens with the noise he made, and the ardor with which he unfurled 
the flag of England whenever something more important needed to be 
done for the honor and future of her growing life. 

It began to be evident that England would no longer be bantered 
or dazzled or joked down, or even threatened by Palmerston. At 
eighty years of age, such a man as Gladstone may be still young, but 
this is not so with an intelligence such as Palmerston's. If he con- 
ceded anything to freedom-loving Lord John Russell, it must be a Re- 
form Bill of i860 of such thin consistency as to furnish nothing but an 
evidence that Palmerston had resolved that Reform was not in his 
line, and that it was not in England's line. It was at this moment that 
Gladstone felt that the people had been educated up to the point where, 
when Palmerston should terminate his career, England would demand 
a director of affairs whose unquestionable courage must be matched 
by the largest and most hopeful intelligence. Bishop Wilberforce, who 

13 



194 GLADSTONE: A BIOGRAPHICAL STUDY. 

anticipated that Gladstone would be chosen Prime Minster at an earl)' 
day, wrote in 1863: 

"That wretched Pam seems to me to get worse and worse. There 
is not a particle of veracity or noble feeling that I have ever been able 
to trace in him. He manages the House of Commons by debauching 
it, making all parties laugh at one another; the Tories at the Liberals, 
by his defeating all Liberal measures; the Liberals at the Tories, by 
their consciousness of getting everything that is to be got in Church 
and State; and all at one another, by substituting low ribaldry for ar- 
gument, bad jokes for principle, and an openly-avowed, vainglorious, 
imbecile vanity as a panoply to guard himself from the attacks of all 
thoughtful men, I think if his life lasts long, it must cost us the slight 
remains of Constitutional Government which exist among us." 

Palmerston himself had said: "Gladstone will soon have it all his 
own way; and, whenever he gets my place, we shall have strange 
doings." Palmerston was the sort of man to take offense at intellectual 
and political liberality. In his cynical old age it was impossible for 
him not to feel that a sprightly, eager, and wide-eyed soul such as was 
Gladstone, was a menace to the England which he had served, and 
which he had tried to keep within the bounds of his own aristocratic 
temperament. Next to Bright was Gladstone in the circle of Palmer- 
ston's hate. It was impossible that they should understand one another, 
when it was the night struggling with the day, and even when there 
was external harmony prevailing, it was still the quiet harmony of that 
moment between day and night, when morning streams victoriously 
over the hills. 



CHAPTER XXII. 

THE SCHOLAR AND ORATOR. 

As against the fading figure of Palmerston, distrustful of popular gov- 
ernment at the last, rose the form of Gladstone, who had amazed Eng- 
land's Conservatism. All these things were treasured up against Mr. 
Gladstone by the learned and reactionary constituents who thronged 
about Oxford University and clung fast to the Toryism which Glad- 
stone was certainly forsaking. They sought to defend the night against 
the morning by the scholastic methods which the most eminent of 
Oxford's modern sons ultimately outgrew. It was evident that his 
struggle to remain a representative of Oxford University in the Parlia- 
ment of England was to be long and severe, and perhaps end in defeat. 

It is a beautiful example of the way in which Gladstone's mind gave 
itself truest recreation and went forth to refreshment, returning with 
power from his excursions from politics into literature, that he now 
spoke so eloquently and wisely in presenting his concluding discourse 
as Lord Rector of the University of Edinburgh. In it, he added to 
the world's literature one of the most comprehensive and philosophic 
of the creations of his mind. His address had as its title, "The Place of 
Ancient Greece in the Providential Order of the World." 

He was in the plenitude of his physical and intellectual power. The 
delivery of the address was calm and yet energetic, his genius kindling 
as he rose to supreme places in classic oratory. 

Many phases of the theme he illustrated with abundant learning and 
graceful oratory. But he never seemed more deeply eloquent, for he 
was never more truly moved in all his soul, than when he turned to 
the Religion of the Bible and said: 

"But indeed there is no need, in order to a due appreciation of our 
debt to the ancient Greeks, that we should either forget or disparage 
the function which was assigned by the Almighty Father to His most 

195 



196 GLADSTONE: A BIOGRAPHICAL STUDY. 

• 

favored people. Much profit, says St. Paul, had the Jew in every way. 
He had the oracles of God; he had the custody of the promises; he 
was the steward of the great and fundamental conception of the unity 
of God, the sole and absolute condition under which the Divine idea 
could be upheld among men at its just elevation. No poetry, no phi- 
losophy, no art of Greece, ever embraced, in its most soaring and widest 
conceptions, that simple law of love towards God and towards our 
neighbor, on which 'two commandments hang all the law and the 
prophets,' and which supplied the moral basis of the new dispensation. 

"There is one history, and that the most touching and most pro- 
found of all, for which we should search in vain through all the pages of 
the classics, — I mean the history of the human soul in its relations with 
its Maker; the history of its sin, and grief, and death, and of the way of 
its recovery to hope and life, and to enduring joy. For the exercises of 
strength and skill, for the achievements and for the enchantments of 
wit, of eloquence, of art, of genius, for the imperial games of politics and 
war — let us seek them on the shores of Greece. But if the first among 
the problems of life be how to establish the peace, and restore the bal- 
ance, of our inward being; if the highest of all conditions in the exist- 
ence of the creature be his aspect towards the God to whom he owes his 
being, and in whose great hand he stands; then let us make our search 
elsewhere. All the wonders of the Greek civilization heaped together 
are less wonderful than is the single Book of Psalms. 

"Palestine was weak and despised, always obscure, oftentimes and 
long trodden down beneath the feet of imperious masters. On the other 
hand, Greece, for a thousand years, 

"Confident from foreign purposes," 

repelled every invader from her shores. Fostering her strength in the; 
keen air of freedom, she defied, and at length overthrew, the mightiest 
of existing empires; and when finally she felt the resistless grasp of the 
masters of all the world, them, too, at the very moment of her subjuga- 
tion, she herself subdued to her literature, language, arts, and manners. 
Palestine, in a word, had no share of the glories of our race; while they 
blaze on every page of the history of Greece with an overpowering 



THE SCHOLAR AND ORATOR. 197 

splendor. Greece had valor, policy, renown, genius, wisdom, wit; she 
had all, in a word, that this world could give her; but the flowers of 
Paradise, which blossom at the best but thinly, blossomed in Palestine 
alone." 

After nearly two hours of golden speech, he concluded thus; 

"Everywhere, before us, and behind us, and around us, and above 
us and beneath, we shall find the Power which — 

"Lives through all life, extends through all extent, 
Spreads undivided, operates unspent." 

And, together with the Power, we shall find the Goodness and the 
Wisdom of which that sublime Power is but a minister. Nor can that 
wisdom and that goodness anywhere shine forth with purer splendor 
than when the Divine forethought, working from afar, in many places, 
and through many generations, so adjusts beforehand the acts and 
the afifairs of men as to let them all converge upon a single point; 
namely, upon that redemption of the world, by God made Man, in 
which all the rays of His glorj are concentrated, and from which they 
pour forth a flood of healing light even over the darkest and saddest 
places of creation." 

Mr. Gladstone first appeared as an author on the great theme of 
Homer, at an hour when the proclamation of the theories of Wolf, 
Lachmann and Hermann had begun to lose a little of its jauntiness and 
to indicate the absurdity of its dogmatism. It is an interesting fact to 
note that the orthodox view of Homer and of the Homeric poems, in 
so far as it was advocated by Air. Gladstone, is stronger to-day than 
it was when he wrote, whatever may have been the general opinions 
with respect to the value of his ingenious essays. He was already 
Doctor of Civil Law, as well as leader in the British Parliament, and 
was known as an erudite and eloquent man who touched every subject 
at least with cleverness and brilliancy, and who scarcely spoke or wrote 
without betraying an almost contagious enthusiasm and thus creating 
a love in his hearer or reader for pure and noble thought as well as 
musical rhetoric. These elements were expected by scholars, to enter 
and play no small part in the perpetual charm which the announced vol- 



198 GLADSTONE: A BIOGRAPHICAL STUDY. 

umes would exercise over the reading public. It was an easy way of 
getting rid for a moment of Mr. Gladstone's influence in politics, to say 
that he could not reason without sophistry because bewildering soph- 
isms were of the bent and tendency of his mind. The Whigs who were 
dissatisfied with him charged this up to his Oxford training, and the 
Tories insisted that they had acutely observed that it was innate and 
incurable. It was also urged that his was not a mind which realized 
vividly and deeply as by the divination of genius a great truth seen only 
from the watch-tower of the highest imagination. Scholarship was 
quite ready, however, to welcome the three volumes of excellent and 
eloquent writing, upon a subject beset with all manner of difficulties, 
each of which involved most accurate induction and profoundest 
scholarship for even its respectable treatment. Those who settled the 
business of particles, as did Browning's dead grammarian, were ready. 
Reviewers were not therefore surprised that Homer's own winged words 
had influenced Mr. Gladstone into a too energetic use of his own wings, 
and that therefore the three volumes, in which were collected the re- 
sults of his studies of Homer, were unnecessarily long, marred by his 
usual brilliant plausibilities, and yet glorious with the radiance of an 
orator's mind. Indeed, in writing, it was always very difficult for Mr. 
Gladstone the scholar and expositor to get away from Mr. Gladstone 
the orator. He did love the effects produced by a sincerely eloquent 
man. His translations of the classics, especially of the ancient poets, 
indicate a poetical rhetoric, rather than imagination all compact and 
that inevitableness, as Emerson termed it, in the use of words, which 
characterize the poet and even the excellent translator of poetry. He 
has an abundance of force and skill, but they are the force and skill of the 
orator, not of the poet, not even of the best sort of ordinary literary 
man. Nothing that he has done lacks his ardor in tempo and melody, 
and in much of his work as a translator he reaches profound harmony. 
His work never suffers from weakness, but on the contrary, it is re- 
markably vigorous; yet the music and the power belong rather to the 
orator than to the true singer or the inspirited translator. His imag- 
ination in this first study of Homer was as faithful to him as ever this 
unsurpassed power of his had been in the illumination of the apparently 



THE SCHOLAR AND ORATOR. 199 

sordid concerns of fiscal science or in the handling of the thorny dif- 
ficulties of Ireland's misgovernment. In his translations he did not 
disdain to give touches even of beauty and of suggestiveness, which 
came not from Homer's mind. Mr. Bentley said of Pope: "You have 
written a very pretty book, but you must not call it Homer," and Mr. 
Gladstone's translations of Homer are indications of how a generous, 
not to say supreme, imagination may amplify even upon the work of the 
blind bard "of Scio's rocky isle," while, because of the defect of that 
same imagination, it often fails to completely reproduce the truly 
Homeric atmosphere. 

It has always been well-nigh impossible for Mr. Gladstone to do the 
trifling things of life with less of seriousness and strength than he em- 
ploys in the performance of the most majestic task. He was not heavy 
but he was great, yet scarcely great enough to work with lightness 
and delicacy. Nothing was more evident in his recent volume of trans- 
lations from Horace than this; that the lighter effusions of the Roman 
bard were simply trampled beneath the heavy onset of Mr. Gladstone's 
somewhat unsympathetic genius. Horace, perhaps, was too trifling and 
light-minded to be truly translated by a great English statesman resting 
upon his laurels in old age. Frolicsome as Mr. Gladstonehas been, though 
he has declined to enter his second childhood and thus bear witness to 
the truth of the old statement "Twice a boy and once a man," he failed 
in this, perhaps because he was entirely unable to enter into the 
playful moods of some of the authors whom he has sought to translate, 
except in such a way as to put a stop to the humor of the situation 
entirely. The lofty and massive quality of his mind appeared in the 
book of translations in which he shared authorship with his friend 
Lord Lyttleton. But while this is to be said, it must also be held that 
there are few who have ever undertaken translation who surpassed Glad- 
stone when he had to deal with the poetry of Greece and Rome in the 
higher flights of song. Quotation has often been made of the descrip- 
tion of the Greeks as they go forth to war in the fourth book of the 
Iliad. Here Gladstone chose as his guide the Homer of English prose 
and poetry, Sir Walter Scott, and these are some of the lines: 



200 GLADSTONE: A BIOGRAPHICAL STUDY. 

"As when the bihow gathers fast, 

With slow and sullen roar, 
Beneath the keen north-western blast 

Against the sounding shore; 
First far at sea it rears its crest, 

Then bursts upon the beach; 
Or with proud arch and swelling breast. 

Where headlands outward reach, 
It smites their strength, and bellowing flings 

Its silver foam afar; 
So, stern and thick, the Danaan kings 

And soldiers marched to war. 
Each leader gave his men the word, 
Each warrior deep in silence heard; 
So mute they marched, thou couldst not ken 
They were a mass of speaking men; 
And as they strode in martial might. 
Their flickering arms shot back the light." 

As successful as Gladstone was in such passages, the rigor and stateli- 
ness of his muse made it impossible for him to handle the delicate 
tapestry of less serious-minded singers. 

There can be no doubt that the enthusiasm of the English reading 
public over Mr. Gladstone's volumes on Homer and the Homeric Age 
began to decline after it was known that, marvelous and almost un- 
matched as were Mr. Gladstone's genius and laboriousness, neither or 
both of these could invent so many hours or supply so much strength, 
outside of the demands which a great statesman had placed upon him, as 
to give him the right to stand before the world as both the first of Eng- 
lish statesmen and an accurate and profound Homeric scholar. Anybody 
knows that it is easier to write a long book containing a given amount 
of knowledge and philosophy than it is to write a short one. When 
Mr. Beecher once preached an hour and a half he smilingly said, "If I 
had had time to think this subject up, I would have left oft' the first 
hour of this sermon." Gladstone's three volumes on Homer are the 
witness of what an incalculably large draft was made upon a first- 
class intellect by the exigencies of his political life. It left him no 



THE SCHOLAR AND ORATOR. 201 

time to put his thought briefly and clearly. Every page has its charms 
and no chapter is to be read without gaining the enthusiasm of the 
author. The cleverness of the treatise was surpassed only by its length. 
He had furnished a work which proved to scholars what a mighty man 
in learning he might have been if he had had the time, and he demon- 
strated to statesmen his unrivaled versatility. As we look upon Mr. 
Gladstone's Homeric studies from this later date, when he arises before 
us as the man Dr. Dolhnger has called the greatest theologian of 
Europe, we cannot help thinking of the remarkable likeness of Glad- 
stone the Homeric scholar and Gladstone the Theologian. He may see 
his Moses and Isaiah emerge from the Higher Criticism as did his 
Homer. In the latter domain as well as in the former, he leaves the im- 
pression, even after his greatest work is done, that human nature, 
after all, cannot be counted upon for accuracy, profundity and com- 
prehensiveness in more than two or three of the supreme interests of 
human life. The atmosphere of plausibility does not permanently abide 
over statements which can not stand fire, nor do even the merits of Mr. 
Gladstone's work in both these domains count for full value in the 
neighborhood of the fact that sometimes he carries his strife for an 
assumed position by sheer force of fascinating speech, rather than by 
the power of coherent argument. The presence of the orator with his 
immeasurable powers of persuasion, glancing from his face or flowing 
melodiously from his lips, has much to do with gaining the day, though 
one may be a little conscious that the whole thing has been accom- 
plished with a dexterity and ingenuity almost too fascinating. But alac- 
rity in passing over the difficulties of a case with facile theorizing which 
half conceals problems as dark and tortuous as they are hidden, the 
light handling of difficulties in the presence of fancied analogies all of 
which would surely break if taken in a vigorous grasp — all this when 
put into print furnishes indubitable evidence either of unnecessary haste 
in the writing and publication or of great desire on the part of a skillful 
orator to appear as great a writer as he is a speaker. Gladstone's Homer 
was full of observations which might have made the fortune of any other 
literary man in English writing on the subject. In the glory of their 
philosophic light, however, his inaccuracies stood forth badly, and fur- 



202 GLADSTONE: A BIOGRAPHICAL STUDY. 

nished the students of historical criticism with a case not easy to forget. 

This great merit of the books can never be forgotten. England saw 
the scholarly statesman turning the eyes of Anglo-Saxon literary world 
again to a vast planet in the sky. Who had any right to suppose that 
Mr. Gladstone had ever gone to this planet and stood there long enough 
to be able to write concerning it, microscopically? His superb contribu- 
tion lay in the fact that he, as almost no other man in the world, could 
and did look upon this matchless star, telescopically. But the dilii- 
culty with Mr. Gladstone was he had made such an exhibit of erudi- 
tion as he was always likely to do, and had seen so many little things 
that nobody cared to attend to, that the things of medium size which 
were of importance to scholars and which he passed over or misun- 
derstood greatly perplexed them. Questions as to when writing came 
into Greece, as to the unity of Homer's work were usually referred to 
the greater works of other scholars, but Gladstone's over-wordy state- 
ment on other matters unfortunately invited the clear, sharp intellect uf 
Mr. Grote into the consideration of the problem and the result was 
that we often found ourselves preferring the terseness and completeness 
of Grote's description to his own. It is when Mr. Gladstone deals with 
the Homeric poems as compared with the Hebrew scriptures, or when 
analyzing the forces which have gone into the making of literature in 
the land of Pindar and Hesiod that we find ourselves borne along by 
eloquence as faithful to the facts as it is stirring to the imagination. 

Whenever he touches such a subject as Homer's perception and 
use of numbers and color, all the best qualities of Gladstone's mind are 
manifested. We can see here the great intellect luxuriating playfully 
with a subject precisely to his fancy. Hasty he may be in many of 
his opinions and somewhat disputatious with reference to some of his 
deductions, but the Homer of Gladstone is a distinct gift, large, full- 
blooded, harmonious, awe-compelling, and that he has left the world 
more eager than ever to know this majestic figure is proof of the 
majesty and charm of his own genius. 



CHAPTER XXIII. 

CONTESTING FOR OXFORD. 

In Gladstone's struggle to hold Oxford as his constituency, and in 
the attacks made upon him at that time, may be read perhaps the 
most interesting chapter in his career as a contestant for honors, where 
he accepted every challenge, and, after a hard battle, won glory in 
defeat. Toryism presumed to lecture him in its reviews, to weep over 
what it termed his moral lapse in its drawing-rooms, to execrate him 
with clumsy abuse in its newspapers. Dryasdusts emerging from the 
chambers where monasticism had given a peculiar hue to their thinking, 
wrote to the great reviews and made exposition elsewhere of the terrors 
with which Oxford again confronted the possibility that so dangerous 
a man should represent so much which had always been respectable, 
scholarly, and conservative. Palm^.rston had once advised that he be 
kept under the influence of Oxford, for he would be controlled in no 
other wise. He was appealed to on account of his father, and was re- 
minded from what a consistent, steady, old-school baronet he had 
sprung. Contrasts were instituted between the brilliant and recalcitrant 
orator and Mr. Gladstone's good, Tory brother, to whom Sir John 
Gladstone had bequeathed his estate in Forfarshire. One enthusiastic 
person projected the plan of somehow providing William E. Gladstone 
with suf^cient property, in the hope that the possession of an estate 
like his brother's might give him some like sense of responsibility and 
woo him back to the Toryism which now appeared unsatisfactory to 
him. Reminiscences were produced by those who had quarreled 
with him in childhood and youth, and, of course, these reflecting people 
remembered nothing except his stalwart obstinacy and his irritable 
temper, and especially the fact that, as a child, he would not play much 
with other children, but ordered them about, to their great disgust. 
Writers of letters to local papers asserted that England might have ex- 

203 



204 GLADSTONE: A BIOGRAPHICAL STUDY. 

pected as much from him, for even while he was a boy, and ought to 
have been engaged in sport, he stubbornly kept reading his books, 
and acquired then that superiority of intelligence and unpleasant seri- 
ousness of mind which, in spite of the charms of the Arabian Nights, 
Plutarch's Lives, Walter Scott's tales, Robinson Crusoe, and the stories 
of Homer and Virgil, led him into the study of Thucydides, Cicero, 
Dante and Plato, and made him so good and loquacious an historian 
that nobody else wanted to talk with him. 

Other critics maintained that they recollected him as a youth so 
beset with the habit of writing poor but ambitious verse that it was 
impossible to expect anything else than a most fanciful and dreamy 
politician out of it all. The following quotation was made from one of 
his early attempts at poetizing: 

WAT TYLER. 

"Shade of him whose valiant tongue 
On high the song of freedom sung; 
Shade of him, whose mighty soul 
' Would pay no taxes on his poll; 

Though, swift as lightning, civic sword 

Descended on thy fated head. 
The blood of England's boldest poured. 
And numbered Tyler with the dead! 

"Still may thy spirit flap its wings 
At midnight o'er the couch of kings; 
And peer and prelate tremble, too, 
In dread of nightly interview! 
With patriot gesture of command, 

With eyes that like thy forges gleam, 
Lest Tyler's voice and Tyler's hand 
Be heard and seen in nightly dream, 

"1 hymn the gallant and the good 
From Tyler down to Thistlewood, 
My muse the trophies grateful sings. 
The deeds of Miller and of Ings; 



CONTESTING FOR OXFORD. 205 

She sings of all who, soon or late, 

Have burst Subjection's iron chain, 
Have seal'd the bloody despot's fate 

Or cleft a peer or priest in twain. 

"Shades, that soft Sedition woo. 
Around the haunts of Peterloo! 
That hover o'er the meeting-halls. 
Where many a voice stentorian bawls! 
Still flit the sacred choir around. 

With 'Freedom' let the garrets ring, 
And vengeance soon in thunder sound 

On Church, and constable, and king." 

And men went about believing that this boy's ironical production 
was the first fruits of his extreme liberalism! 

One grave gentleman insisted that he w^as the victim, in early life, 
of what has been called the "fatal facility for extemporaneous utter- 
ance;" that oftentimes Gladstone found it impossible to satisfy his love 
of contention unless he were to take the wrong side of the question, 
which he promptly did, and that his superlative talents so irradiated and 
bewildered him that at last he convinced himself that he was on the 
right side, and he stayed there, with a pertinacity and doggedness un- 
equaled except in the last session of Parliament. Oxford could scarce 
endure this. 

It was a signal opportunity for Gladstone's critics to find the root 
of everything which they now disliked in him, in some anecdote relating 
somewhat of his past. Boys who had known him at Eton, and were 
not so strenuous as he, now rose to remark that he never was popular, 
but was cold and haughty, and yet he was smart enough to keep out 
of scrapes, and politic enough to be on the winning side, so that even 
then he was called "Popular Billy." No one dreamed in the confusion 
that the case against him had suffered from too much proof. It was 
the common complaint of these critics who were intent upon his de- 
feat, that he had always been the dupe of his own impulsiveness of dis- 
position, which led him into committing himself before he knew what 
he was about, and, possessing abnormally high self-respect, not to 



2o6 GLADSTONE: A BIOGRAPHICAL STUDY. 

say egotism, he never could be persuaded to abandon his false posi- 
tion. He could extricate himself from apparently hopeless dilemmas, 
and meet with adroitness his own mistakes; and all this had developed 
within him, they said, a tendency which Oxford never in the world 
might suffer longer, namely, a bent of mind and a desire to argue elo- 
quently, even against his own reason and conscience, rather than give 
up a proposition which in his haste and conceit he had adopted. Little 
did Oxford think that the thing objected to, so constantly misappre- 
hended, was really a current of Gladstone's mind revealing the fact that 
he was at last escaping the dogmatism and scholasticism of his old Uni- 
versity. 

It was impossible, even in 1865, for these foes to forget that Glad- 
stone had been an excellent churchman, and that he had written a 
book which left no ground visible for a Dissenter or even an unctious 
Evangelical churchman to stand on. Church Toryism took to itself 
with singular affectionateness this part of Gladstone which had in- 
sisted that one religious denomination could never be as good as 
another. It was very amusing to hear Church Toryism produce its 
lament that a young and brilliant statesman such as Gladstone, who 
had been a regular attendant at St. Mary's, Oxford, when John' Henry 
Newman exercised his indescribable charm over the young auditors, 
and yet had not taken them all to the Church of Rome, should not have 
contented himself with a statesmanship which would have left him still 
a churchman as learned and redoubtable as Keble and as conservative 
as an Oxford don. That this same Gladstone had nevertheless ap- 
peared happy that the Reform Bill had swept away so many landmarks, 
so-called, that he rejoiced that the ten-pounds householders had a 
representative in the House of Commons, and that there were yet other 
things he might help to do in the same direction before the Government 
of England would appear perfect to him — this was incredibly bad. 
Mourners went about the streets reflecting that, if Gladstone had never 
come under the milder political sophistry of Sir Robert Peel, he might 
not have developed such a skill in manipulation, such prodigious powers 
of refining and making distinctions through which Toryism was con- 
stantly escaping, as now confounded them, and that he never would 



CONTESTING FOR OXFORD. 207 

have dazzled plain people by the finesse with which he attained his 
purposes. 

Unquestionably, Gladstone had behind him a record which gave 
great pain to the straightforward disciples of Toryism. His foes could 
not forget that Mr. Gladstone's speech on Lord John Russell's motion 
for applying the surplus revenues of the Irish Church to secular pur- 
poses had compelled the Earl of Derby to pronounce him the most elo- 
quent young man he had heard since the beginning of his own long 
public life. Neither could Toryism forget that Gladstone had shown a 
business ability and a power for handling and solving financial problems, 
a master of the art of lucid exposition equaled but not surpassed by the 
younger Pitt; besides all this, he had the force of stainless personal 
character; but lo! these energies had gone with his dreadful aspiration 
to think for himself and to act for himself, thus, as one Tory general 
said, making it certain that he was "to mar a genius otherwise so bril- 
liant and to detract from the value of a reputation so important to the 
party." "Party," indeed! — Gladstone has made partyism (as opposed 
to patriotism) as ridiculous as it is abominable. Oxford had noticed 
pretty carefully that Gladstone had not been as violent as his consti- 
tutionally bad temper ought really to have made him against such 
propositions as Duncombe's in 1840, "to bring in a Bill for exempting 
Dissenters, on certain conditions, from the payment of Church rates." 
Since that time Gladstone's sentimentalism in the direction of the wick- 
ed Non-Conformists has often horrified the guardians of the Ark of 
the Lord in England. Gladstone had even been caught coquetting 
with other Liberal notions. It is true he had so labored to change the 
commercial system of Great Britain as to make England solvent, but 
he was accused of unseemly vanity about his efforts, even in the pres- 
ence of Sir Robert.Peel, who had been chief in the pilot-house while the 
ship was thus taking its course. He had not, another observed, im- 
proved in the quality of his Toryism, but he had become more adroit 
and tumultuous in battle. 

The opposition to him became positively humorous. His church- 
manship, which had been once held to be more exacting and upright 



2o8 GLADSTONE: A BIOGRAPHICAL STUDY. 

than that of Mr, Keble, was hotly attacked from another point of view, 
and the Oxford dons revolted at the assertion: 

"For the last thirty years I have not been able to trace any danger 
to the Church of England arising from the political acts of Dissenters." 

Every delicate ecclesiastical sensibility was shocked. The Book of 
Common Prayer might as well have been burned before their eyes. 
Besides all this, there had recently been some significant strikes upon 
the part of the laboring men, and Gladstone, who had been favorable 
to the extension of the Franchise, had not called them rascals, — the 
word "anarchists" had not then come into use — and he had further 
offended their perfumed respectability by recognizing Garibaldi and 
bringing himself into disrepute with people who could not understand 
the valor of the red-shirted hero. 

Oxford had noted that Gladstone was speaking in South Lancashire, 
and Oxford insisted that this meant that Gladstone understood how 
unsatisfactory he must be to a cultivated community. It was only 
necessary for Oxford to reprint and circulate his speech at Bolton, in 
order to properly guard its refinement against the danger of voting for 
Gladstone. 

If this had been all, some might have lapsed so far as to forgive him, 
but, just at the moment when he was intimating that there were times 
when a statesman became over-lively in his urging reforms, he said to 
the workingmen of Manchester: 

"Gentlemen, permit me to express a hope that this great commu- 
nity will be upon its guard against what I may call the principle of 
political lethargy. That is not a sound or a healthy principle. There 
are times when I apprehend it would be the duty of any public man, in 
addressing a public assembly, to endeavor to moderate what might seem 
to him over-liveliness and excessive eagerness, even in the w^ork of 
reform and improvement. But the time in which we live is not a time 
of that character; it is rather a time in which it is becoming we should 
recall to our recollection, that although so much has been done, and 
well done, to the honor of all parties concerned in this country during 
the last thirty years, yet it behooves us to continue cautiously, steadily, 
and justly but firmly, to continue in the same career. We cannot look 




CARDINAL NEWMAN 



CONTESTING FOR OXFORD. 209 

abroad over the face of our country without feeling that there is much 
that we have yet to desire. We cannot look across the channel to Ire- 
land, and especially to the state of feeling in Ireland, and say that that 
state of feeling taken as a whole, is becoming for the honor and for the 
advantage of the United Kingdom. We cannot look upon our brethren 
and our fellow-subjects there Mathout heartily wishing that they were 
more entirely united with us. We cannot say that their duty to the peo- 
ple has been discharged. I do not say that Parliament is to blame. I 
contend, indeed, that Parliament is the faithful steward of the powers 
which it has received. It is governed by an enlightened desire to pro- 
mote the interests of the entire community. But that Parliament has 
more than once heard an expression of the desire that some extension 
should take place in the direct action of the people in the choice of its 
representatives. (Cheers.) There cannot, I think, be a doubt that, 
whenever the state of public feeling shall have matured for the satis- 
factory entertaining of that question, one of the great demonstrative 
facts of the moral claim of the people to have some extension of the 
franchise will rest with the conduct of the population of Lancashire 
during the distress of the last few years." 

Surely even the impetuous and wily Gladstone could not be allowed 
by Oxford to go further. He went to Liverpool, and there, in spite of 
the recollection of his Tory father, and his lively consideration of the 
fact that the merchants of Liverpool were quite proud of him, and he 
was anxious to retain the honor they did him, he spoke freely with ref- 
erence to the duty on corn and the further application of the principles 
he had espoused. 

South Lancashire was vulgar and sooty and uncultured; — Oxford 
was about to say to Mr. Gladstone that he belonged to that sort of 
people. After Oxford had washed the hands of the aristocracy from 
previously-acquired defilement, and Gladstone was no longer her rep- 
resentative at Westminster, with the attention of England directed to 
him, as he might have desired, he gave a farewell address. He said, 
speaking to a vast audience in Manchester: 

"After an anxious struggle of eighteen years, during which the un- 
bounded devotion and indulgence of my friends maintained me in the 
14 



2IO GLADSTONE: A BIOGRAPHICAL STUDY. 

arduous position of representative of the University of Oxford, I have 
been driven from my seat. ... 1 have loved the University with 
a deep and passionate love, and as long as I breathe that attachment 
will continue; if my affection is of the smallest advantage to that great, 
that ancient, that noble institution, that advantage, such as it is, and it 
is most insignificant, Oxford will possess as long as I live. But don't 
mistake the issue which has been raised. The University has at length, 
after eighteen years of self-denial, been drawn by what I might, per- 
haps, call an overweening exercise of power, into the vortex of mere 
politics. Well, you will readily understand why, as long as I had a hope 
that the zeal and kindness of my friends might keep me in my place, it 
was not possible for me to abandon them. Could they have returned me 
iby a majority of one, painful as it is to a man at my time of life, and 
feeling the weight of public cares, to be incessantly struggling for his 
seat, nothing could have induced me to quit that University to which 
I had so long ago devoted my best care and attachment. But by no 
act of my own am I free to come among you. And having been thus 
set free, I need hardly tell you that it is with joy, with thankfulness, 
and enthusiasm, that I now, at this eleventh hour, a candidate without 
an address, make my appeal to the heart and the mind of South Lanca- 
shire, and ask you to pronounce upon that appeal. As I have said, I am 
aware of no cause for the votes which have given a majority against 
me in the University of Oxford, except the fact that the strongest con- 
viction that the human mind can receive, that an overpowering sense 
of the public interests, that the practical teachings of experience, to 
which from my youth Oxford herself taught me to lay open my mind 
— all these had shown me the folly, and, I will say, the madness of re- 
fusing to join in the generous sympathies of my countrymen, by 
adopting what I must call an obstructive policy." 

He added: 

"Without entering into details, without unrolling the long record of 
all the great measures that have been passed — the emancipation of 
Roman Catholics; the removal of tests from Dissenters; the emancipa- 
tion of the slaves; the reformation of the Poor Law; the reformation — 
I had almost said the destruction, but it is the reformation — of the tariff; 



CONTESTING FOR OXFORD. 211 

the abolition of the Corn Laws; the aboHtion of the Navigation Laws; 
the conclusion of the French treaty; the laws which have relieved Dis- 
senters from stigma and almost ignominy, and which in doing so have 
not weakened, but have strengthened, the Church to which I belong — 
all these great acts, accomplished with the same, I had almost said su- 
blime, tranquillity of the whole country as that with which your own 
vast machinery performs its appointed task, as it were in perfect re- 
pose — all these things have been done. You have seen the acts. You 
have seen the fruits. It is natural to enquire who have been the doers. 
In a very humble measure, but yet according to the degree and capacity 
of the powers which Providence has bestowed upon me, I have been de- 
sirous not to obstruct but to promote and assist this beneficent and 
blessed process. And if I entered Parliament, as I did enter Parlia- 
ment, with a warm and anxious desire to maintain the institutions of 
my country, I can truly say that there is no period of my life during 
which my conscience is so clear, and renders me so good an answer, as 
those years in which I have co-operated in the promotion of Liberal 
measures. . . . Because they are Liberal, they are the true meas- 
ures, and indicate the true policy by which the country is made strong 
and its institutions preserved." 

Lord Palmerston, whose life had now closed in petulance and faith- 
lessness, had said of Gladstone: "He is a dangerous man. Keep him 
in Oxford, and he is partially muzzled; but send him elsewhere, and 
he will run wild." Now at Liverpool, his old home, the unmuzzled man 
spoke, in part, as follows: 

"During eighteen years I have been the representative of Oxford. 
It has been my duty in her name to deal with all those questions bearing 
upon the relations of Religion and Education to the State, which this 
critical period has brought to the surface. Long has she borne with me; 
long, in spite of active opposition, did she resist every eftort to displace 
me. At last she has changed her mind. God grant it may be well with 
her; but the recollection of her confidence which I had so long enjoyed, 
and of the many years I have spent in her service, never can depart from 
me; and if now I appear before you in a different position, I do not 
appear as another man. ... If the future of the University is to 



212 GLADSTONE: A BIOGRAPHICAL STUDY. 

be as glorious as her past, the result must be brought about by enlarg- 
ing her borders, by opening her doors, by invigorating her powers, by 
endeavoring to rise to the heights of that vocation with which, I be- 
lieve, it has pleased the Almighty to endow her. I see represented in 
that ancient institution the most prominent features that relate to the 
past of England. I come into South Lancashire, and find here around 
me an assemblage of different phenomena. I find the development of 
industry. I find the growth of enterprise. I find the progress of social 
philanthropy. I find the prevalence of toleration. I find an ardent de- 
sire for freedom. ... 

''If there be one duty more than another incumbent upon the public 
men of England, it is to establish and maintain harmony between the 
past of our glorious history and the future which is still in store for her. 
. . . I am if possible more firmly attached to the institutions of my 
country than I was when, a boy, I wandered among the sand-hills of 
Seaforth. But experience has brought with it its lessons. I have 
learned that there is wisdom in a policy of trust, and folly in a policy of 
mistrust. I have observed the effect which has been produced by Lib- 
eral legislation; and if we are told that the feeling of the country is in 
the best and broadest sense Conservative, honesty compels us to admit 
that that result has been brought about by Liberal legislation." 

South Lancashire adopted the stone whom the Oxford builders re- 
jected at the very time when panic-stricken men, such as Lord Shaftes- 
bury, were blind to the cynicism and antediluvianism of even as strong a 
personality as Lord Palmerston. "Lord Palmerston," said Lord Shaftes- 
bury, lamentingly, "is the only true Englishman left us in public life."' 
It was a sad time, indeed, except for prophetic souls. 

He desired to rest, but England would not hear his plea. 



CHAPTER XXIV. 
LEADER OF THE HOUSE OF COMMONS. 

February 6, 1866, found the new Parliament opened in a manner 
befitting the sad event which had left the Queen of England a widow 
and the nation mourning for the Prince Consort. Matters were not 
minced in the announcement that Parliament would be expected to deal 
with the Reform Bill. The speech from the Throne contemplated ac- 
tion in the direction of a broadening of the Elective Franchise. Four 
hundred thousand voters were to be added, and thus a larger suffrage 
was to be introduced; all adult males, who, in two years had deposited 
fifty pounds in a savings bank, could register; compound householders 
were to stand in a position relatively equal to that of the rate-payers; the 
clauses of the Reform Act were to be abolished, admitting voters above 
the line of ten pounds; and the Occupation Franchise was to include 
houses at fourteen pounds rental and attain as high as fifty pounds. 

Every thoughtful man in England watched Gladstone's appearance 
.with interest as the leader of the House of Commons. He had been 
splendidly trained in the past, and his cause was now finely reinforced by 
excellent men who would stand by his side. Gladstone was in his best 
form. He stood in his own manly strength, 

"A pillar of state; deep on his front engraven 
Deliberation sat and public care; 
With Atlantean shoulders fit to bear 
The weight of mightiest monarchies." 

He spoke with impassioned strength on the Reform Bill before the 
House: 

"We cannot consent to look upon this large addition, considerable 
although it may be, to the political power of the working classes of this 
country, as if it were an addition fraught with mischief and with danger. 
We cannot look, and we hope no man will look, upon it as some Trojan 
horse approaching the walls of the sacred city, and filled with armed 

213 



214 GLADSTONE: A BIOGRAPHICAL STUDY. 

men, bent upon ruin, plunder, and conflagration. We cannot join in 
comparing it with that monstrum infelix — we cannot say: 

" Scandit fatahs machina muros, 

Foeta armis: mediseque minans illabitur urbi." 

I beheve that those persons whom we ask you to enfranchise ought 
rather to be welcomed as you would welcome recruits to your army, 
or children to your family. We ask you to give within what you con- 
sider to be the just limits of prudence and circumspection; but, having 
once determined those limits, to give with an ungrudging hand. Con- 
sider what you can safely and justly afford to do in admitting new sub- 
jects and citizens within the pale of the Parliamentary constitution; and, 
having so considered it, do not, I beseech you, perform the act as if 
you were compounding with danger and misfortune. Do it as if you 
were conferring a boon that will be felt and reciprocated in grateful at- 
tachment. Give to these persons new interests in the constitution, new 
interests which, by the beneficent processes of the law of nature and of 
Providence, shall beget in them new attachment; for the attachment of 
the people to the Throne, the institutions, and the laws under which they 
live is, after all, more than gold and silver, or more than fleets and 
armies, at once the strength, the glory, and the safety of the land." 

Gladstone was tenderly regardful of his personal obligations to his 
friends, and his love for Sir Robert Peel always commanded his chival- 
rous speech. While he never made much of a figure in the world of fash- 
ion, Gladstone took it suddenly by storm in the year 1866, by appearing 
at the christening of Sir Robert Peel's descendant — an event which as- 
sembled the rank and fashion of the metropolis. Gladstone made a 
speech which produced a profound impression. It was his to propose the 
health of the infant, and some of his rotund and graceful sentences the 
audience had a right to expect. But he struck out into a new line for 
himself and for his audience, and thereby captivated fashionable Lon- 
don. The speech, it was said, "set two colonels crying, and disturbed 
the equanimity of a brace of bishops." It was chronicled by an observer 
of note, in March, 1866, that this orator had begun to speak with a cer- 
tain air of command, and that so imperious and yet fascinating was his 
manner that it seemed perfectly right for such men as Sir George Grey, 



LEADER OF THE HOUSE OF COMMONS. 215 

John Stuart Mill and John Bright, to be dominated as well as charmed 
by him. 

In this session John Stuart Mill had, no doubt, his greatest influence 
upon the thought and tone of Mr. Gladstone. Up to this date. Mill was 
thought an indifferent speaker, because he was a philosopher; and it was 
usually arranged, at least at the first, that he should be through his 
speaking before Gladstone arose. Mill's was a unique service in that 
body of legislators which has been spoken of as possessing "all the vices 
of a mob, with none of its virtues." Nobody had any doubt that he was 
the greatest authority in England on logic and political economy. Now 
he was to shine as a persuasive speaker. At sixty years of age he won 
a distinct triumph in the annals of British speech, and no one was more 
happy than Gladstone himself in the unmistakable victory accredited to 
this scholar and philosopher. It was needful that the Liberal party at 
that time, having use for Gladstone in other parts of the field, should 
enlist in the advocacy of its opinions some one whose personal character 
and abundant information might unite with powers of persuasion, to 
place before the House of Commons the Liberal view of such subjects 
as were involved in the question, for example, whether "the redundancy 
of revenue should be applied, not to the remission of the Malt Tax, but 
to a payment of the national debt." Mr. Mill had been serious in study- 
ing the House of Commons from the opening of the session. The peri- 
patetics of that body went flitting about in the lobbies or lounging in 
the refreshment rooms — in short, doing anything and everything to 
escape the dullness of a tedious debate; but Gladstone and Mill might 
always be found present and patient in listening to the dreariest of Par- 
liamentary bores. Mill had already attracted the attention of the think- 
ers in the Assembly. His voice was feeble and somewhat uninteresting 
in the quality of its tone, his figure slight and delicate, appearing small 
enough in comparison with the hearty John Bright, who sat in front of 
him at the upper end of one of the Independent Liberal benches, and ap- 
pearing very ungraceful, also, in comparison with the lithe and upright 
form of Mr. Gladstone. Yet Alill's face was exceedingly sensitive, and 
it always glowed with the indwelling intellectual force with which his 
whole personality was surcharged; and, at once, the House of Commons 



2i6 GLADSTONE: A BIOGRAPHICAL STUDY. 

saw a man thinking keenly and deeply on his feet, and evidently putting 
the reasoning of the moment into words as inevitable as the thought it- 
self. His own book on Political Economy was as much on trial as 
Gladstone's book on Church and State had ever been on trial in other 
quarters. 

Mill had attracted the lance of Mr. Robert Lowe, and a finer play of 
swords in the British intellectual arena had not been seen for a long 
time. Mr. Lowe met a foeman worthy of his steel, and by his own dex- 
terity and the fierceness of his thrust in the onset, he simply proved that 
his antagonist, John Stuart Mill, had brought unsurpassed intellectual 
skill to the House of Commons. The debate on the Revenue and the 
National Debt was wearisome in the extreme, until Mill rose to de- 
fend the position he had taken that an effort be made by this tax to re- 
duce the National Debt. He lacked the mental excitement which the 
presence of Bright, Lord Stanley and Disraeli might have given him. 
Gladstone and Bulwer-Lytton had been long before wearied out, and 
they seemed to vie with each other in gymnastics, one of them "unfold- 
ing a greater variety of sprawling postures than anyone would suppose 
the human form, even of an acrobat or a financier, capable of assuming;" 
the other an eminent man "whose long, meager, uncouth form had 
writhed and twisted impatiently upon his seat," and who, upon the ap- 
pearance of Mr. Mill, "bent far forward with his chin in his left hand 
and the elbow resting on his knee, while his eyes glared intently from 
beneath the shadow of his broad-brimmed hat." These, with perhaps 
seventy men of indifferent standing, had remained when Mill began to 
speak. There could be no doubt of the magic of the spell he exercised. 
The whole subject was illuminated by a man of genius, not rhetorical, 
far from verbose, but fluent and sincere and resistless by the clear force 
of his compact thinking and classic utterance. It was an hour before he 
concluded his peroration. Mr. Gladstone was the most delighted man 
in England. 

He had already adopted into such friendship as ideas alone may 
make immortally powerful, this timid scholar, whose gentle and unas- 
suming oratory, carrying superlative wisdom, had placed him in the 
front rank of the really effective speakers of England. 



LEADER OF THE HOUSE OF COMMONS. 217 

It was Gladstone's characteristic that he drew from every such man 
his highest and best contribution for the general cause of Liberal states- 
manship. Differ as Bright and Mill might from Gladstone, he taxed 
their utm'ost powers and obtained their richest devotion to a cause more 
important than their differences. Mr. Gladstone was in the midst of 
the fight for reform. "Society," which John Stuart Mill and such men 
had despised, was against the Bill. Gladstone himself had spoken, both 
at Liverpool and at Manchester, and it was still a question as to what 
England meant to do. Gladstone doubted if the agitation for the meas- 
ure had been strong enough and long and widespread enough. Brook- 
ing no antagonism, he had startled the House of Commons by turning 
around upon his antagonists and hurling upon them his scorn at their 
horror of admitting the workingman to the Franchise, as if they were 
foreign foes instead of being, as he said, "our fellow subjects, our fellow 
Christians, our own flesh and blood." In the swiftness and breadth of his 
eloquence, his auditors almost forgot whether they were to vote on this 
particular Bill, or on the broader question as to the right of the working 
classes to exercise their share of electoral strength. The Liberal party 
kindled under the influence of his speech, and even those who were dis- 
posed to rebel against the imperiousness of Gladstone, concluded to put 
off deserting the cause until they heard from the country. Everybody 
began to say that it was "the citizen against the aristocrat." Bright 
shared with Gladstone the labor and honor of addressing monster meet- 
ings in Lancashire, When Gladstone was badgered by those who said 
he had not been able to state openly what it was hoped to effect by a 
more democratic Padiament, he stood upon his dignity, and hurled back 
the charges of indecision with as much success, and with more reason, 
than Disraeli could hurl back the charges of his foes by his old tone of 
insolent triumph. No doubt the Liberal party, as a party, was weaker 
than Mr. Gladstone, because Liberalism at that time was very anxious 
to prove that it never could become very democratic. The truth is that 
it took a long while for Gladstone and his Liberal friends to realize that 
in their sympathy with the South in the Civil War in the United States, 
they had stabbed their own cause in England. They had been shout- 
ing that democratic institutions would go to pieces, and now they had 



2i8 GLADSTONE: A BIOGRAPHICAL STUDY. 

the English pubhc suddenly to educate and to be convinced that this, 
which was a movement in the direction of democracy, was a wise thing 
for England. 

England never has cared to learn much from her daughter, America. 
It is obviously true that she had to learn, at that time, that democratic 
principles were gaining ground in England because of the success 
achieved by the American democracy in handling the Rebellion. Mr. 
Gladstone's adroitness, his unmistakable ability to conceal an idea 
amidst high-sounding and fascinating phraseology, even his unmatched 
gifts as an orator, were needed to make things appear palatable to the 
British mind. On the first night of the debate, as long before the time 
of which we are writing as was early March, Gladstone had supported 
the Bill with dexterous power. It is doubtful if he ever appeared to bet- 
ter advantage physically. His voice rang out like a trumpet, and every 
tone indicated the superb health of his vital organism. His handsome 
face appeared so transparent that the burning soul looked out through 
every feature upon his audience. The supple, fairly tall, spare figure, 
marked a little by the scholar's stoop until the moment came when he 
lifted himself to his full height and thundered forth his resistless periods, 
held its volume of excitement fairly well, while he shook his rather large 
and fine head, crowned, as it was, with hair which was turning from black 
to gray, and destroyed the arguments of the Opposition by a glance 
from the piercing eyes, or the announcement of some unanswerable ar- 
gument, to which the firm, strong chin and finely moulded mouth loaned 
all their power. 

Mr. Gladstone always gave undeniable evidence, by his utterance and 
its character, when his mind was not quite inade up, or when he saw 
difficulties which he knew were stronger than his antagonists supposed. 
This state of mind manifested itself in his finding four or five terms 
with which to express his meaning, and three or four phrases which only 
served to indicate how unsatisfactory to himself was his own thought 
on the subject. Time after time, in this speech, which was two hours 
and a half long, Gladstone demonstrated the fact th^t he could take 
more sideroads and find more interesting scenery in taking them, and 



LEADER OF THE HOUSE OF COMMONS. 219 

still get back upon the main road, than any man in England. He was 
not quite clear to himself, although he spoke with vigor. 

It was very apparent that Mr. Robert Lowe, with his vitriolic anal- 
ysis and instinctive doubt as to the value of Mr. Gladstone's oratorical 
productiveness, could ask no finer opportunity to win the triumph over 
his old Oxford friend. Gladstone and Lowe could never understand 
one another. Lowe was as predestined a failure as Gladstone was a pre- 
destined success, in a political career. Gladstone had genuine sympa- 
thy for the people, Lowe had none. Gladstone trusted his sentiments, 
and loved to dally with his own reasons and study their subtleties; Lowe 
despised sentiment, and his mind was too hard and logical to tarry long 
in a web of finely spun distinctions. No doubt his speech that night ac- 
centuated the defects of Gladstone's advocacy of the Reform. 

Everyone who met Gladstone at this time discerned a resiliency 
of intellectual and spiritual fiber remarkable in any man. Lord Hough- 
ton writes of him at this moment: 

"I sat by Gladstone at the Delameres'. He was very much excited, 
not only about politics, but cattle-plague, china, and everything else. It 
is indeed a contrast to Palmerston's Ha! ha! and laissez-faire." 

Even after the Reform Bill had begun to shrivel as a blossom in a 
time of frost, Gladstone's pluck and skill for confounding his enemies 
did not forsake him. He had the disadvantage of finding that every- 
body could say when the Reform Bill proved a failure: "I told you so." 
Bishop Wilberforce had written in his journal March 12th: 

"Gladstone has risen entirely to his position, and done all his most 
sanguine friends hoped for as leader. . . . There is a general feel- 
ing of the insecurity of the Ministry, and the Reform Bill to be launched 
to-night is thought a bad rock." 

And that was the sentiment of all thoughtful England. The Glad- 
stone who was urging England toward democracy was paying for his 
blunder with respect to the ability of American free government to per- 
petuate itself against rebellion. It was hard to argue against the past. 

John Bright has described the collection of half-hearted Liberals 
who organized themselves against Gladstone as a political "Cave of 
Adullam," but this did not answer their contention. 



CHAPTER XXV. 
GLADSTONE AND DISRAELI. 

It was remarkable, if not disheartening, to Gladstone, that this asso- 
ciation of malcontents was growing larger day by day. Its most pol- 
ished weapon he saw when the son of his father. Sir Robert Peel, spoke 
in opposition to the Bill. No doubt Mr. Gladstone's speech was saved 
from much that was wandering and inconclusive, by the fact that Dis- 
raeli so bitterly taunted him concerning his past. The thrust roused 
him to noblest eloquence. Disraeli was more than ordinarily patron- 
izing and insolent when he reminded Gladstone that once the latter had 
made a speech in the Oxford Union against the Reform Bill of 1832. 
Gladstone leaped at him with terrific force in these well-known words: 

"The right hon. gentleman, secure in the recollection of his own 
consistency, has taunted me with the errors of my boyhood. When he 
addressed the hon. member for Westminster, he showed his magna- 
nimity by declaring that he would not take the philosopher to task for 
what he wrote twenty-five years ago; but when he caught one who, 
thirty-six years ago, just emerged from boyhood, and still an under- 
graduate at Oxford, had expressed an opinion adverse to the Reform 
Bill of 1832, of which he had so long and bitterly repented, then the 
right hon. gentleman could not resist the temptation. He, a parlia- 
mentary leader of twenty years' standing, is so ignorant of the House 
of Commons that he positively thought he got a parliamentary advan- 
tage by exhibiting me as an opponent of the Reform Bill of 1832. As 
the right hon. gentleman has exhibited me, let me exhibit myself. It 
is true, I deeply regret it, but I was bred under the shadow of the great 
name of Canning; every influence connected with that name governed 
the politics of my childhood and of my youth; with Canning, I re- 
joiced in the removal of religious disabilities, and in the character 
which he gave to our policy abroad; with Canning, I rejoiced in the 

220 



GLADSTONE AND DISRAELI. 221 

opening which he made towards the estabHshment of free commercial 
interchanges between nations; with Canning, and under the shadow of 
that great name, and under the shadow of that yet more venerable 
name of Burke, I grant, my youthful mind and imagination were im- 
pressed just the same as the mature mind of the right hon. gentleman 
is now impressed. I had conceived that fear and alarm of the first 
Reform Bill in the days of my undergraduate career at Oxford which 
the right hon. gentleman now feels; and the only difference between 
us is this — I thank him for bringing it out — that, having those views, I 
moved the Oxford Union Debating Society to express them clearly, 
plainly, forcibly, in downright English, and that the right hon. gentle- 
man is still obliged to skulk under the cover of the amendment of the 
noble lord. I envy him not one particle of the polemical advantage 
which he has gained by his discreet reference to the proceedings of the 
Oxford Union Debating Society in the year of grace 183 1. My 
position, sir, in regard to the Liberal party is in all points the opposite 
of Earl Russell's. ... I have none of the claims he possesses. I 
came among you an outcast from those with whom I associated, driven 
from them, I admit, by no arbitrary act, but by the slow and resistless 
forces of conviction. I came among you, to make use of the legal 
phraseology, in forma pauperis. I had nothing to offer you but faith- 
ful and honorable service. You received me, as Dido received the 
shipwrecked ^neas — 

Ejectum littore egentem 
Excepi, 

and I only trust you may not hereafter at any time have to complete 
the sentence in regard to me — 

Et regni demens in parte loeavi. 

You received me with kindness, indulgence, generosity, and I may 
even say with some measure of confidence. And the relation between 
us has assumed such a form that you can never be my debtors, but that 
I must forever be in your debt. It is not from me, under such cir- 
cumstances, that any word will proceed that can savor of the character 



222 GLADSTONE: A BIOGRAPHICAL STUDY. 

which the right hon. gentleman imputes to the conduct of the Govern- 
ment with respect to the present Bill." 

More and more rich became his eloquence, as he concluded: 
"Sir, we are assailed; this Bill is in a state of crisis and of peril, and 
the Government along with it. We stand or fall with it, as has been 
declared by my noble friend Lord Russell. We stand with it now; we 
may fall with it a short time hence. If we do so fall, we, or others in 
our places, shall rise with it hereafter. I shall not attempt to measure 
with precision the forces that are to be arrayed against us in the coming 
issue. Perhaps the great division of to-night is not the last that must 
take place in the struggle. At some point of the contest you may 
possibly succeed. You may drive us from our seats. You may bury the 
Bill that we have introduced, but we will write upon its gravestone, for 
an epitaph, this line, with certain confidence in its fulfillment: 

Exoriare aliquis nostris ex ossibus ultor. 

You cannot fight against the future. Time is on our side. The great 
social forces which move onwards in their might and majesty, and 
which the tumult of our debates does not for a moment impede or 
disturb — those great social forces are against you; they are marshaled 
on our side; and the banner which we now carry into this fight, though 
perhaps at some moment it may droop over our sinking heads, yet it 
soon again will float in the eye of Heaven, and it will be borne by the 
firm hands of the united people of the three kingdoms, perhaps not to 
an easy, but to a certain, and to a not far distant, victory." 

Perhaps never had Gladstone so moved the English nation by his 
eloquence, and it is a question, if, in modern times, any single utterance 
in a hall of legislation has so instantly and widely commanded the en- 
thusiasm of a people as did this speech. The future England — indeed 
"the parliament of man, the federation of the world," for an hour, hung, 
not as a dream, impossible of realization, in the sky, but as a reality to 
be soon reached and enjoyed — and this vision, at the moment, actually 
thrilled the somewhat heavy and stolid intelligence of John Bull, shop- 
keeper. Disraeli's remark, that the English are, after all, an enthusiastic 
people, would have been taken as sober truth, by a chance visitor from 



GLADSTONE AND DISRAELI. 223 

abroad, who, next morning, tried to get a hearing at table or at the rail- 
way station upon the subject of his breakfast or his ticket. Crowds of 
excited men were listening to another full-voiced Briton as he read 
Gladstone's speech — the tears and shouts mingling, as sentence after 
sentence came upon their eager ears. Drawing rooms, not yet disen- 
chanted by the "society" whose fantastic prerogatives such a philosophy 
as his would inevitably sweep away, gave themselves up to his praise. 
His house was filled with a host of admirers and his eye looked out upon 
crowds who had seen from afar but who were yet sure at least for the 
present, to be cheated out of the better day he prophesied. It would 
not be fair to say that Gladstone's eloquence was the only product of 
oratory and genius in that debate. Mr. Robert Lowe, as Conservative in 
this hour as he was likely to be Liberal the next, a man who profoundly 
distrusted the people and who saw that Americanism had at last cap- 
tured Gladstone, uttered a brilliant protest. He was soon to be made 
Lord Sherbrooke and his speech was characteristic: 

"Monarchies," said he, "exist by loyalty, aristocracies by honor, pop- 
ular assemblies by political virtue. When these things begin to fail, it 
is in their loss, and not in comets, eclipses and earthquakes, that w'e are 
to look for the portents that herald the fall of States." And again: "We 
are about to exchange certain good for more than doubtful change; we 
are about to barter maxims and traditions that never failed for theories 
and doctrines that never succeeded. Democracy you may have at any 
time. Night and day the gate is open that leads to that bare and level 
plain where every ant's nest is a mountain and every thistle a forest-tree. 
But a Government such as that of England is the work of no human 
hand. It has grown up by the imperceptible aggregation of centuries. 
It is a thing which we only can enjoy, which we cannot impart to others, 
and which, once lost, we can not recover for ourselves." 

Against such Conservatism not even Gladstone could lead John Bull 
at that hour. 

There was no possible use in Russell and Gladstone attempting 
to carry the Bill unless some concessions were made. After a bare 
majority of five had carried its second reading, these conciliations were 
offered, but they were offered in vain. On the anniversary day, when 



224 GLADSTONE: A BIOGRAPHICAL STUDY. 

the English spirit congratulated itself on the victory obtained over 
Napoleon at Waterloo by Wellington, a motion was carried against the 
Government. Rating for rental was substituted as the basis of the 
Franchise in boroughs. Lord Macaulay's nephew gave to the public a 
poem which made its place in the history of the time. Tribulation in- 
creased for the "Gladstone coterie," so-called, and it was driven to 
resign. A financial panic came, the European continent quivered with 
alarm; Queenstown saw an American monitor in the harbor, and ex- 
citement was intense from one end of the realm to the other. The one 
fact which left its mark was the Austro-Prussian conflict, of which 
Gladstone afterwards said : 

"Never was there a war shorter than that of 1866, but its conse- 
quences were immense. It restored the national existence of Germany, 
and brought within view its complete consolidation. It consummated 
the national unity of Italy. It put an end to all possibility of refusing 
the demands of Hungary, As part of the Hungarian arrangement, it 
secured free government for the whole Austrian Empire, and, lastly, 
in thus restoring the power of utterance and action to that country, it 
shattered the fabric of Ultramontanism which had been built up by the 
Concordat of 1855. Such were the results, in the South, of those few 
weeks of war." 

Gladstone was at least satisfactory to the Radicals. Would they gc 
too far for him? Bright was satisfied. 

"Who is there in the House of Commons," he demanded, "who 
equals him in knowledge of all political questions? Who equals him in 
earnestness? Who equals him in eloquence? Who equals him in cour- 
age and fidelity to his convictions? If these gentlemen who say they 
will not follow him have any one who is equal, let them show him. If 
they can point out any statesman who can add dignity and grandeur to 
the stature of Mr. Gladstone, let them produce him." 

Radicalism had frightened sober John Bull. It seemed to be a poor 
time for reforms, when Trafalgar Square was made riotous by more 
than 100,000 people passing resolutions in its favor. Yet Gladstone was 
holding his own. The music of Mr. George Trevelyan's poem was 
turned into truth, and Mr. Gladstone's house was surrounded by a 




GLADSTONE AND HIS SON HERBERT 




LORD BEACONSFIELD 



GLADSTONE AND DISRAELI. 225 

throng of Englishmen who sang hymns in his honor. Nothing could 
have added more signally to the popularity of the Chancellor of the 
Exchequer than the fact that as Lord Russell's Government went down, 
the stalwart conviction and unquestioned genius of Gladstone became 
manifest to Great Britain. Every one of his friends believed that a year 
or two of opposition would strengthen him, and they were right. 

Meantime Mr. Gladstone's sobriety and good sense appeared to 
the best advantage. His were small as contrasted with the difficulties 
which Mr. Robert Lowe's sharp sword had produced for himself, in 
the fact that the laboring people of Great Britain were more indignant 
as to his scorn of them than they were credulous as to the truth stated 
in Mr. Gladstone's eloquence, or in John Stuart Mill's reasoning. It 
is certain that Gladstone lost no opportunity to take advantage of the 
popular sympathy which was aroused when Mr. Robert Lowe's strange 
talent for saying the wrong thing led him to utter his bitter attack upon 
the working classes and led them to believe that theirs was Gladstone's 
cause. This added significance to the vast assemblage in Trafalgar 
Square. 

Mr. Gladstone was now a public figure of such prominence that it 
was entirely impossible for him to move without creating curiosity and 
remark. He had been a long loved and honored friend of Cardinal 
Manning, and Newman had influenced his thinking and religious life. 
Now he and his family went to visit Rome and they called upon Pope 
Pius IX. For eighteen months thereafter, from whisper to public proc- 
lamation, "the accusation growing bold and true," the report gained 
currency that he had gone to Rome to arrange with the Pope to destroy 
Protestant Church Establishment in Ireland, and to consult with respect 
to other matters of like importance, he being at heart a Roman Catholic. 
It is easy to imagine what Philistinism and bigotry in England made 
out of a report so delicious to its taste as was this one. We doubt very 
much if Gladstone ever got over the effect of the report that he either 
had been intending to join the Roman Church, or was intending it now, 
or w-as going to intend it in the future. It has been continually embar- 
rassing to his career as he has dealt with the problem involving the des- 
tinies of the Irish people. 

15 



226 GLADSTONE: A BIOGRAPHICAL STUDY. 

At this time Gladstone gave a great deal of attention to what was 
called the Ritualistic Movement in the Church of England. Americans 
have, at one time, been called upon to face the question as to whether 
a special denomination of Christians should arrogate to themselves the 
name of "Church of America." The Ritualistic party in America was 
in the lead during this discussion, and perhaps educated the American 
mind into some interest as to the general drift of Ritualism elsewhere. 
Gladstone's high churchmanship led him at once into an appreciation 
of the symbolism and poetry of ceremonial and worship. It was at the 
time of the Church Congress that the Ritualists gave their exhibition 
of clothes used in their services. Seven large rooms were filled with 
copes, stoles, chasubles and the like, and this display, while it fascinated 
the antiquarians and tickled John Bull in so far as he was a manufacturer 
of ecclesiastical millinery, and whatever else they needed, excited an 
intense feeling of antagonism to the whole Ritualistic movement. Glad- 
stone's famous essays on the general subject were being prepared. 

The only other subject upon which Gladstone talked at all times 
and with everybody in the course of these autumn days, was the Elective 
Franchise. True, the Reform Bill had failed, but the justice and the ex- 
pediency of a wider suffrage was most apparent to Gladstone. For the 
common people not to desire it and for England to be glad, was for 
England to agree to their voluntary degradation. Gladstone saw the 
educational value of suffrage, subject to such qualifications as an intelli- 
gent man would propose. There was a growing feeling now that it was 
fair to admit men into the processes of civilization if it was meant 
to civilize them, and that this was wiser than to leave them out where 
their interests and prejudices could have no voice or vote. The aston- 
ishing success of the American Union began to fill the mind of England 
with larger hopes for democracy everywhere. The ten-pound house- 
holder stop-and-brake had not hitherto kept England from corruption. 
No wise man would say that the morals of a voting class, each having 
an income of 10,000 pounds, would be higher than the morals of a vot- 
ing class having an income of 100 pounds per annum. Of one thing 
Gladstone was convinced, the burden of proof lay upon the advocates 
of an exclusive franchise. The tests ought to be rational, not arbitrary. 



GLADSTONE AND DISRAELI. 227 

Permanence of residence and education were better and sounder tests 
than wealth and a fine pedigree. A Constitutional Government depending 
upon the loyalty of all its citizens could not l^e carried on by shutting 
out a large proportion of the community and compelling them to believe 
that the cherished interests of a few always controlled legislation. John 
Stuart Mill stood by him again and again, in urging the fact that popular 
suffrage has a most stimulating effect on the popular mind. As democ- 
racy grew in England, such men as Gladstone did not fear the excite- 
ment of an election. 

The consideration of public affairs by the public involves an im- 
mense educational movement, and on this educational movement Mr. 
Gladstone was relying more day by day. 

Meantime the English radicals and the Irish Democrats, under the in- 
fluence of Mr. Bright and the Roman Catholic bishops whom he met at 
Dublin, were forming as much of an alliance as was possible with the 
turbulent Irish agitators, who entered the combination and who now 
saw that Gladstone, with Mill and Bright, were sure to do something 
soon with the Land Tenure and the Irish Church. 

A conspicuous figure now arose who called himself "The O'Donog- 
hue." He was almost as eloquent as Mr. Bright, and as handsome as 
Gladstone, and he refused to use the title "Mr." and was called "The" 
because he had descended from an Irish king. He was ubiquitous, wily 
and able, and had to be reckoned with. 

It was anticipated that Disraeli had persuaded the Conservative Min- 
istry to a proposition looking toward Household Suffrage. He had 
craftily left a path open to this concession by his recent speech. 

And now, peace-defending John Bright was heard sounding strange 
tones from beneath his broad, Quaker hat. It is possible that if ]\Ir. 
Bright had known to what extent his words would have been quoted at 
a later date, he would not have labored for the regeneration of Ireland 
by intimating that the item of physical force should have something to 
do with the settlement of the question. It was an anomalous thing for 
John Bright to do, but it was a time when physical force had been ap- 
pealed to on other matters. At the meeting at Trafalgar Square, in 
which Gladstone and Bright had been praised by the workingmen, much 



228 GLADSTONE: A BIOGRAPHICAL STUDY. 

must have reminded Gladstone and Bright how that the same governing 
classes which were resisting reform had before resisted almost every- 
thing but physical force in 1832. At a famous meeting in Birmingham 
now Bright received with delight the announcement that 100,000 work- 
ingmen and artisans would again pledge to march on London. In 1832 
the threat of creating a new company of lords who could handle the old 
peers who had resisted Reform brought the Throne and the Upper 
House to terms. Now the House of Lords, having declined to be led 
by Gladstone toward a broadening of the suffrage, looked out upon the 
scene and saw the possibility of 100,000 workingmen marching on Lon- 
don, and raising such a tumult in other ways as either to ultimately fill 
the House of Lords with undesirable occupants or to abolish it. Noisy 
indeed were the peasantry of Ireland whenever the Irish question 
touched their Church or State. They were learning from other lands. 
Stein had raised the Prussian peasantry from wretchedness and ignorance 
and revolt, to comfort and intelligence and political power, and it was 
upon the lips of men who would willingly have granted Gladstone's con- 
tention on Disestablishment, that things must go no further until Ireland 
was civilized, not by physical force, which, either in England or in Ire- 
land, had done so much to uncivilize her, but by some such radical 
change as would contemplate the possession of land by the citizens of 
Ireland in fee simple. Fenianism arose out of its grave, and the specter 
horrified the country. The London Times and the Morning Post 
warned the Irish people that the rebellion would be disastrous. The 
Reform Administration meanwhile had met in London. At this time 
John Bright's eloquence had reached a height altogether unmatched, 
even by Mr. Gladstone's versatile powers. Ordinarily Bright had to 
struggle, in the House of Commons, and out of it, with an audience 
which did not agree with him. He spoke to monster meetings 
in London and elsewhere. Within the sound of St. Stephen's debates, 
his audience carried him on into unwonted realms of oratorical splendor. 
The Tory policy with reference to the evils of Ireland had received more 
cautious, more just, and therefore more terrible and unanswerable an- 
tagonism from the calmer and more skillful oratory of Gladstone. But 
never before had severity joined with genius to cast upon the Tory 



GLADSTONE AND DISRAELI. 



229 



party an odium so overwhelming as came from Bright's address at this 
time. 

Meantime Gladstone was taking thoughtful notice of the fact that a 
strong feeling had arisen among workingmen that the State Church 
was not worthy of the place which it at least held, if it had not usurped, 
and that the property which belonged to all the nation ought not to be 
used for a particular class of people. The opposition of the House of 
Lords to reform, and the discussion of Irish Church Disestablishment 
had led to this feeling, and now Mr. Gladstone set his great energies 
to the task of influencing the body of clergy in the English Church to 
discharge their high functions in regard to education and the general 
treatment of social grievances, so that the institution which, as we have 
seen, he loved so much, and which w-as so vital to the larger interests 
of England and humanity, might worthily stand in the front rank of 
the forces of progress. 

Such always was the statesmanship of Gladstone, that no biographer 
can state, for none can calculate, the conservative influence he has exer- 
cised in labors like these. Institutions may be preserved only by states- 
men who make them worthy of themselves. 

Early in February Parliament was opened, and the Lord Chan- 
cellor stood by the side of the Queen and read the speech. Everybody 
waited for Disraeli to redeem the promise that the Government should 
do something about Reform. Gladstone appeared to see, as everybody 
else saw, that Lord John Russell was failing in physical power and intel- 
lectual energy, and Gladstone himself was more brilliant and industrious 
than usual. He promised to help his opponents, if they would deal hon- 
estly and progressively with the questions before them. Perhaps Glad- 
stone's impulsiveness was never more counted upon by his antagonists 
than just at this time. His versatility had now and then added to his 
difficulties by giving him a reputation for bad temper and arrogance. 
He was in a trying position. His High Churchmanship made the Dis- 
senters unsatisfied with him. His leaning toward the people inflamed 
such men as Lord Cranborne to compare him to a pettifogging attor- 
ney, and, next day, to apologize to the attorneys of England for doing 
so. The old Whig families hated him because he gave so much talent 



230 GLADSTONE: A BIOGRAPHICAL STUDY. 

to the cause of the plebeians. But he had genius, and he was in the 
right. 

Just at this time, when the Fenians were attempting to raise a revo- 
lution in the neighborhood of Hawarden Castle, Gladstone's home, Mr. 
Disraeli arose to present the Government scheme of Reform. His 
deep and sonorous voice quivered as he threw taunt and challenge to 
those who had stood for Reform, and his manner was irritably lofty and 
serious as he uttered admirably phrased commonplaces apparently 
charged with the deepest political wisdom. Theatrical in the extreme, 
Lis pompous sneer accompanied him as he strode forth, dealing out tin- 
sel and drops of burning sarcasm, never attempting the heights of elo- 
quence visited by Bright or the more rigorous paths of statesmanship 
toward which Gladstone was leading England. He spoke of Goldwin 
Smith as a "rampant lecturer," and coolly proposed that every such man 
as he should be willing to think Reform a measure above party, and he 
hinted that he and his party alone ought to determine about the Fran- 
chise, the redistribution of seats, and whatever else the Liberal party 
was aimlessly talking about. Soon the Government scheme of Reform 
was published, and the Conservative party found itself hopelessly at war 
with itself. 

It was John Bright who gave Mr. Disraeli a name which followed 
him to the last. What Bright had said now appeared truer than ever: 

''Now, Mr. Disraeli is a man who does what may be called the con- 
juring for his party. He is what, amongst a tribe of Red Indians, Avould 
be called 'the mystery man.' He invents phrases for them — and one of 
the phrases, the last and the newest, is this lateral extension of the fran- 
chise. Now, Mr. Disraeli is a man of brains, of genius, of great capacity 
for action, of a wonderful tenacity of purpose; and of a rare courage. He 
would have been a statesman if his powers had been directed by any 
noble principle or idea. But, unhappily, he prefers a temporary and 
worthless distinction as the head of a decaying party, fighting for im- 
possible ends, to the priceless memories of services rendered to his country 
and to freedom, on which only in our age an enduring fame can be 
built up." 

Disraeli kept England waiting for some deep and wise scheme of 
policy to unfold itself. Gladstone watched carefully, expecting to see 



GLADSTONE AND DISRAELI. 231 

his own Bill, changed sufficiently to satisfy the prejudice of aristocracy 
and the demand of the rabble, offered by Mr. Disraeli. At last Dis- 
raeli showed his hand, and he spoke in introduction of a Reform Bill 
which his party despised because it was a Reform Bill, and which the 
Liberals laughed at. Gladstone had already triumphed so far that the 
Cabinet had to offer a bolder scheme, and a device was added to the 
scheme of Household Suffrage, and Disraeli solemnly warranted it all 
to work. Meantime the more orthodox Conservatives resigned, before 
the "mystery man," and the silent advance of Gladstone's prudent and 
self-restrained battalion. The man who had been accused of arrogance 
and bad temper, who w^as simply and nobly angered at the folly of his 
friends and the audacity of his foes in the presence of a supreme ques- 
tion, beheld his opponents dispirited in the meantime. 

The "Cave of Adullam," in which the discontented of Liberalism 
gathered, with Mr. Lowe posing as a Liberal in everything else but 
the one thing for which Liberalism had the right to exist, felt the humil- 
iation. Gladstone's followers, who were led farther than they wanted 
to go in the direction of popular government, were swept on by the en- 
thusiasm of the victor. Nobody knew what would be the end of the con- 
troversy. Disraeli had only a remnant of his own party, but he had the 
support of a large fraction of the opposition who were in favor of Re- 
form. Was it possible that this athletic magician, who was a Conserva- 
tive only by accident, as Gladstone was a Liberal by conviction, could 
unite a fragment of the Tory party with the mob on the streets and make 
a Reform Bill desirable to England? Mr. Gladstone was certainly 
rising to a place in the admiration of England to which he had never 
before attained. Henry Fawcett, afterwards to be his Postmaster Gen- 
eral, now the blind and beloved member for Brighton,, the author of ex- 
cellent works on political economy and a laborious ally, with Thomas 
Hughes, of Rugby fame and of philanthropic enterprises, represented 
the sort of men who were rapidly coming to speak of Gladstone with en- 
thusiasm, and even the old Whigs regarded the vehemence of his speech 
as a witness to the eagerness of his soul. 

Never were Gladstone and Disraeli more unconsciously leaving in- 
effaceable portraits of themselves for the eyes of England to look upon. 



232 GLADSTONE: A BIOGRAPHICAL STUDY. 

Gladstone's eloquence suffered oftentimes from his cleverness in the 
handling of words, but it suffered more from the tendency of his mind to 
see interesting distinctions which are important only to a scholastic mind 
and for which words are the names, and then it was that words mastered 
him, and he waded uneffectively through his too elaborate and sonorous 
sentences. Never until his conscience and heart were stirred so that 
his intellect had no time for subtleties, did the impetuous stream carry 
its full burden of meaning, and his fervid imagination yield its resources 
to his fully conceived purpose as an orator. Gladstone's ardent tem- 
perament shines through these '"'best appeals, and one can easily 
understand how much more popular Disraeli must have been in what 
Thackeray calls "society," where a cold cleverness means so much and 
where an imperious moral aim means so little. 

Gladstone appeared to be leading his party, when Disraeli's Bill pro- 
posing to establish Household Suffrage came up. Gladstone objected 
to the establishment of unequal suffrage as Disraeli proposed, and to the 
leaving of the distribution of the franchise to be handled by whimsical 
parish vestries. He proposed a substitute for Mr. Disraeli's quahficatlon, 
and he advocated an instruction to the committee embodying the scheme 
of a uniform rate giving the franchise to all occupiers of holdings rated 
at five pounds. Gladstone's enemies saw that a race was in progress be- 
tween him and Disraeli, and he was accused of going too far "toward the 
mob," in admitting a far larger number of persons to the vote than even 
Disraeli proposed. Besides, the Liberal leaders were afraid their con- 
stituents would say that this amendment would create an arbitrary line, 
making a man's right to vote rest on the value of his house, and not on 
the size of his taxes or the amount of his intelligence. 

The famous "tea-room meeting" of the Liberals occurred. Glad- 
stone was told of their refusal to support him. The vote showed a vic- 
tory for Disraeli, and the Tories were jubilant. Gladstone could only 
say to to his friends: "I have deferred to the opinions of others; I aban- 
doned the instruction I proposed; I have been accused of arrogance and 
imperiousness. Had I been imperious in this case, my very defeat 
would have been a victory." 



CHAPTER XXVI. 

THE DERBY-DISRAELI GOVERNMENT. 

The Derby-Disraeli Government had been constituted in February, 
and Disraeh's plan for the reduction of the Franchise in Boroughs had 
come before Parliament in the shape of resolutions. At length Glad- 
stone succeeded in forcing Disraeli to offer the plan in the form of a 
Bill. Even this did not produce a political paradise. But Gladstone 
was not through with public life. He gave notice of amendments to the 
Bill which Disraeli insisted were so vital that if they should succeed the 
Government would decline further responsibility. The discussion re- 
vealed great diversity of ideas. Gladstone's first resolution was re- 
jected, but after the Easter vacation, in the hey-day of their power, and 
in the confident expectation upon the part of the Government that the 
Bill would pass and be satisfactory to his following of Conservatives, in 
spite of the modifications urged by the Liberals, Disraeli saw his meas- 
ure utterly transformed. Gladstone had succeeded in getting his ten 
Modifications adopted, with the single exception of the second, which 
was subsequently taken in, and the Conservatives had surrendered. It 
was the most unprecedented struggle in length and severity in which 
Gladstone and Disraeli ever took part, each calling forth the reserve 
energy and unsuspected dexterity of the other in the exciting duel. On 
and on these debates led them, confronting ministerial crises, pushing 
responsibilities from one side to the other, until the House of Commons 
grew weary, and in July, 1867, passed the schedules, and called for the 
third reading of the Bill. Meantime Lord John Russell had definitely 
withdrawn from politics and given the leadership of the party into Glad- 
stone's hands. 

In November, 1867, Mrs. Disraeli fell ill. The Abyssinian difficulty 
came before Parliament in the short session before Christmas. Mr. 
Gladstone, naturally, was interested, and desired to talk on the address, 

233 



234 GLADSTONE: A BIOGRAPHICAL STUDY. 

but he declined, under the circumstances, to speak on any subject which 
might challenge Mr. Disraeli to contest with him in debate at such a 
time. 

Disraeli was now as much of a turncoat, in the eyes of the Conserva- 
tives, as Gladstone had ever been. It was not necessary for Gladstone 
to visit his wrath upon his old foe, even if he had any to visit, which was 
not the case in the present instance. Lord Cranbourne and Mr. Lowe 
could attend to Disraeli. It is sufficient to quote Lord Cranbourne's 
last remark, which was surpassed in severity by Mr. Lowe's longer 
reference to the subject: 

"I should deeply regret to find that the House of Commons has ap- 
plauded a policy of legerdemain; and I should above all things regret 
that this great gift to the people, if gift you think it, should have been 
purchased at the cost of a political betrayal which has no parallel in our 
parliamentary annals, which strikes at the root of all mutual confidence, 
which is the very soul of our party government, and on which only the 
strength and freedom of our representative institutions can be sus- 
tained." 

DisraeH replied to little purpose. The Bill passed the House of 
Commons, and after some amendments and characteristic speeches by 
Earl Russell and Lord Derby, the Bill was adopted. After Disraeli's rec- 
ord on the Reform Bill there was little else for him to do but to make 
a grand play, such as amused Great Britain, when, at the end of the 
year, he declared at a dinner given in his honor in Scotland, that he had 
always been a reformer, and, above all, the champion of the granting of 
the broadest Elective Franchise, He said in explanation of his previous 
history: "I had to prepare the mind of the country, and to educate — 
if it be not arrogant to use such a phrase — to educate our party. It is a 
large party, and requires its attention to be called to questions of this 
kind with some pressure. I had to prepare the mind of Parliament and 
the country on this question of Reform." 

After all that might be said of Gladstone's "intellectual intricacy," 
Disraeli's cleverness had not kept him from appearing before the coun- 
try as a man who had been beaten with the very ideas in his keeping 
against which he had fought so long. Meantime, on other subjects. 



THE DERBY-DISRAELI GOVERNMENT. 235 

Gladstone had pronounced strongly. There could now be no doubt 
about his position of antagonism to the Established Church in Ireland, 
and he had favored the opening of the Universities to all sects. The 
argument against the State supporting a religion which in Ireland had 
only a small minority, was put by Gladstone most clearly. Gladstone 
was already beginning to feel sure of the bigotry of Dissent, which saw 
in the contest against the Irish Established Church the appearance of a 
**rag of Popery." He had been criticized by Tory gentlemen because 
he had gone toward the "Americanization" of England, — and a most 
remarkable specter was this! Now this same timorous respectability be- 
held him adopting a course of conduct which would ultimately lead, they 
thought, to the disestablishment of all kinds of privileged institutions in 
the realm. The well-paid Bishops saw that what has been called "the 
religious department of the British Government," namely, the Church 
of England, was also threatened, and Gladstone's High Churchmanship, 
which had been suspected of leaning toward a Church in absolute con- 
trol of the State, was now sadly discredited, for was it not certain that 
he had acknowledged, in a public way, the valuable services of the 
Dissenters on the Franchise question, and had he not lately given an 
address to a body of Nonconformists? Besides, the Churchmen could 
■not forget that the Church no longer had its old hold upon the Univer- 
sities to the exclusion of Dissenters, and Mr. Gladstone was held in 
blame for this state of things. 

Really, it was too bad that all this should be occurring at a time when 
Mr. Huxley was v^riting review articles overthrowing ancient dogmas 
and that even Gladstone could not satisfactorily contend against these 
unchurchly fulminations, and Max Miiller was composing addresses on 
comparative religion, to be delivered within the walls of Westminster 
Abbey or at Oxford. No wonder Conservative Churchmen, well fed 
and trembling for their benefices, looked toward the House of Lords 
as the only breakwater against such a flood. It was not remarkable, at 
such an hour, that one excited believer should propose to call Omnip- 
otence in to protect the defense itself. 

Now came a peripatetic orator named Murphy, who led a crusade 
amongst the lower classes against the Romish priests. It was followed 



236 GLADSTONE: A BIOGRAPHICAL STUDY. 

by the murder of a man named Brett, and this fact indicated such a 
state of things as would demand the consideration of some scheme 
which would make Fenianism the name of a less dangerous force in 
politics. Not even the trades-unions question, which was the cause of 
a general controversy, could attract Gladstone from this subject. 

London could hardly enjoy Christmas because of the explosion at 
Clerkenwell and the revelations made by Fenianism, and the irrita- 
tion it caused showed that something must be done immediately with 
regard to removing the causes of Irish discontent. A Government was 
in power called the Derby Government, whose interests Disraeli was 
practically managing, and nothing but coercion could be expected 
from them. On the 25th of February (1868) Lord Derby had resigned. 
Disraeli had formed a new Administration, and now he could look back 
upon the period when his speech was received with shouts of derision 
and speak with his accustomed satire of those who had laughed at him. 
He had struggled, single-handed and alone, from being the despised 
Jew in politics to a position of glory and power. He was now Premier 
of the Realm. 

March 30th Gladstone moved the following resolution: 

"i. That in the opinion of this House, it is necessary that the Estab- 
lished Church of Ireland should cease to exist as an establishment, due 
regard being had to all personal interests and to all individual rights to 
property. 2. That, subject to the foregoing considerations, it is ex- 
pedient to prevent the creation of new personal interests by the exercise 
of any public patronage, and to confine the operations of the Ecclesi- 
astical Commissioners of Ireland to objects of immediate necessity, or 
involving individual rights, pending the final decision of Parliament. 3. 
That an humble address be presented to Her Majesty, humbly to pray 
that, with a view to the purpose aforesaid. Her Majesty will be gra- 
ciously pleased to place at the disposal of Parliament her interest in the 
temporalities, in archbishoprics, bishoprics, and other ecclesiastical dig- 
nities and benefices in Ireland and in the custody thereof." 

The spirit in which the reform was proposed had been revealed in a 
debate on a previous motion. 

"If we be prudent men," Gladstone said, *T hope we shall endeavor. 



THE DERBY-DISRAELI GOVERNMENT. 2^ 

as far as in us lies, to make some provision for a contingent, a doubtful, 
and probably a dangerous future. If we be chivalrous men, I trust we 
shall endeavor to wipe away all those stains which the civilized world 
has for ages seen, or seemed to see, on the shield of England in her 
treatment of Ireland. If we be compassionate men, I hope we shall 
now, once for all, listen to the tale of woe which comes from her, and 
the reality of wdiich, if not its justice, is testified by the continuous 
migration of her people; that we shall endeavor to 

Raze out the written troubles from her brain. 
Pluck from her memory the rooted sorrow. 

But, above all, if we be just men, we shall go forward in the name of 
truth and right, bearing this in mind — that when the case is proved, 
and the hour is come, justice delayed is justice denied." 

He now followed up his resolution by a long discourse, brilliant, 
learned, denunciatory of the Irish Church Establishment, and contain- 
ing such passages as this: 

"There are many who think that to lay hands upon the national 
Church Establishment of a country is a profane and unhallowed act. 
I respect that feeling. I sympathize with it. I sympathize with it while 
I think it my duty to overcome and repress it. But if it be an error, it is 
an error entitled to respect. There is something in the idea of a national 
establishment of religion, of a solemn appropriation of a part of the 
Commonwealth for conferring upon all who are ready to receive it 
what we know to be an inestimable benefit; of saving that portion of 
the inheritance from private selfishness, in order to extract from it, if 
we can, pure and unmixed advantages of the highest order for the pop- 
ulation at large; there is something in this so attractive that it is an 
image that must always command the homage of the many. It is some- 
what like the kingly ghost in 'Hamlet,' of which one of the characters of 
Shakespeare says: 

"We do it wrong, being so majestical, 
To offer it the show of violence; 
For it is, as the air, invulnerable, 
And our vain blows malicious mockery. 



238 GLADSTONE: A BIOGRAPHICAL STUDY. 

"But sir, this is to view a religions establishment upon one side only — 
upon what I may call the ethereal side. It has likewise a side of earth; 
and here I cannot do better than quote some lines written by the present 
Archbishop of Dublin, at a time when his genius was devoted to the 
muses. He said, in speaking of mankind: 

"We who did our lineage high 
Draw from beyond the starry sky, 
Are yet upon the other side 
To earth and to its dust allied. 

"And so the Church Establishment, regarded in its theory and in its 
aim, is beautiful and attractive. Yet what is it but an appropriation 
of public property, an appropriation of the fruits of labor and of skill 
to certain purposes, and unless these purposes are fuliilled, that appro- 
priation cannot be justified. Therefore, sir, I cannot but feel that we 
must set aside fears which thrust themselves upon the imagination, and 
act upon the sober dictates of our judgment. I think it has been 
shown that the cause for action is strong — not for precipitate action, 
not for action beyond our powers, but for such action as the opportuni- 
ties of the times and the condition of Parliament, if there be a ready 
will, will amply and easily admit of. If I am asked as to my expecta- 
tions of the issue of this struggle, I begin by frankly avowing that I, 
for one, would not have entered into it, unless I believed that the final 
hour was about to sound: 

"Venit summa dies et ineluctabile fatum. 

"And I hope that the noble lord will forgive me if I say that before Friday 
last I thought that the thread of the remaining life of the Irish Estab- 
lished Church was short,, but that since Friday last, when, at half-past 
four o'clock in the afternoon, the noble lord stood at the table, I have 
regarded it as being shorter still. The issue is not in our hands. What 
we had and have to do is to consider well and deeply before we take 
the first step in an engagement such as this; but having entered into 
the controversy, there and then to acquit ourselves like men, and to 
use every effort to remove what still remains of scandals and calami- 



THE DERBY-DISRAELI GOVERNMENT. 239 

ties in the relations which exist between England and Ireland, and to 
make our best efforts at least to fill up with the cement of human con- 
cord the noble fabric of the British Empire." 

In the latter part of the year 1868, after the General Election, Mr. 
Gladstone published his famous "Chapter of Autobiography." 

He agreed that autobiography ordinarily sholild be posthumous, 
but he saw that the cause, namely, the Disestablishment of the Church 
of Ireland, was likely to suffer "in point of credit, if not of energy and 
rapidity, from the real or supposed delinquencies of a person," and that 
person was himself. He thoroughly appreciated the heavy fire under 
which the Liberal party was then standing. 

But this was only introductory to his most skillful and elaborate 
defense. He referred to the fact that he had published a book which 
Lord Macaulay had reviewed, and that he applied the theories of that 
book to the case of the Irish Church. He knew the paradox which 
confronted him, and says that then he "erroneously thought we should 
remove this priceless treasure from the view and reach of the Irish 
people," and further, he then believed it would be meanly to purchase 
their momentary favor at the expense of their permanent interests, and 
establish "a high fence against our own sacred obligations." He pro- 
ceeded to point out inconsistency and immoderateness in his book, and 
to say that the main proposition of that book, "The State in its Rela- 
tions with the Church," bound him hand and foot, and hemmed him in 
on every side. He acknowledged at once that he had retreated from 
an untenable position, and in this Chapter of Autobiography he pro- 
ceeded to prove that it was not a sudden retreat, it was not "performed 
with indecent levity," it was not "made to minister to the interests of 
political ambition," the gravity of the case was not "denied or under- 
stated," it was not "daringly pretended that there had been no real 
change of front," and that many had misunderstood him and his posi- 
tion. 

Never did Gladstone appear to better advantage than in this in- 
teresting piece of literature. The whole domain of recent Church his- 
tory and his personal relations to it, was traversed carefully. 

He proceeded to prove that he did not leap to the conclusion that 



240 GLADSTONE: A BIOGRAPHICAL STUDY. 

the Established Church of Ireland must, at no distant period, cease to 
exist as an Establishment. He added: 

"I was not sorry, I was glad, that while Ireland seemed content to 
have it so, a longer time should be granted her to unfold her religious 
energies through the medium of an active and pious clergy. My mind 
recoiled then, as it recoils now, from the idea of worrying the Irish 
Church to death. I desired that it should remain even as it was, until 
the way should be opened, and the means at hand, for bringing about 
some better state of things." 

He rehearsed the chronicle of her history and his own. Year upon 
year was examined and correspondence printed which showed how 
continuously Gladstone's Liberalism had been growing, how certainly 
erroneous impressions were passing away, and how healthfully a large 
view of statesmanship had developed in his mind. Solidly and bril- 
liantly his defense at last arose as an argument, until his conclusion 
came as follows: 

"An establishment that neither does, nor has her hope of doing work, 
except for a few, and those few the portion of the community whose 
claim to public aid is the smallest of all; an Establishment severed from 
the mass of the people by an impassable gulf, and by a wall of brass; an 
Establishment whose good offices, could she offer them, would be in- 
tercepted by a long unbroken chain of painful and shameful recol- 
lections; an Establishment leaning for support upon the extraneous aid 
of a State, which becomes discredited with the people by the very act of 
lending it ; such an Establishment will do well for its own sake, and for 
the sake of its creed, to divest itself, as soon as may be, of gauds and 
trappings, and to commence a new career, in which, renouncing at once 
the credit and the discredit of the civil sanction, it shall seek its strength 
from within, and now at length learn to put a fearless trust in the 
message that it bears." 

Disraeli read the elaborate essay and quietly remarked: "Mr. Glad- 
stone is an Italian in the custody of a Scotchman." 




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JOHN BRIGHT 



CHAPTER XXVII. 

DISESTABLISHMENT. 

Gladstone scented victory from the beginning of this fight. The 
vote in the House of Commons put a stop at once to the appointments 
to hvings in the gift of the Government, and no more vacant bishoprics 
could be filled. Bright's speech in the debate was so fine that even the 
"Saturday Review" declared that no Liberal Ministry could be complete 
without him. Disraeli took an attitude of chivalrous defense for the 
institution, and advertised a long and bitter struggle. He did not 
know how much he ought to do in what he called the "education of the 
party." Acute in all his maneuvers, he had fascinated the mob by 
tinsel and attracted the loyalty of the democracy. Lie was sparing 
no expenditure of power to get it into line with the Conservatives on 
Church matters. Paradoxical and satirical, Disraeli battled Hke a glad- 
iator against threats of dissolution, until, just as he had once adopted 
Household Suffrage, he began to make mysterious suggestions after 
his own manner and in the same direction. The conjurer sat, relying 
upon his hope that out of the mass of voters whom he had brought into 
being there had come a new strength to the Tory party. Disraeli's visit 
to the Queen, which led to the announcement early in May that he 
would neither resign nor now dissolve Parliament, but would hold on 
until new voters had an opportunity of expressing their opinion, was the 
cause of unfavorable comment, and it seemed certain that a vote of 
want of confidence, even though it was advertised that the Queen pro- 
posed to have more to do with what Parliament was considering than 
hitherto, was likely to be suggested. 

Arthur P. Stanley, now Dean of Westminster, who had been Glad- 
stone's old friend in the early schooldays, spoke against Irish Dis- 
establishment with great force, though his audience at last roared him 
down. Disraeli encouraged his followers. Many such men as Principal 
16 241 



242 GLADSTONE: A BIOGRAPHICAL STUDY. 

Tulloch failed to approve the Gladstone method. In his journal, the 
scholar of St. Andrews said: 

"May 27, 1868: I cannot see, on the whole, that Mr. Gladstone's 
is a policy of pacification. The evils and miseries of Ireland, however 
originally connected with the Irish Church, have undoubtedly long since 
extended beyond it. They are no longer specially connected with it. 
The disestablishment of the Irish Church will not very. directly touch the 
present evils and miseries of Ireland, while its immediate effects may be 
in some respects very disastrous. The Irish Church has, after all, 
been a civilizing agency in various ways, and it is impossible to doubt 
that you cannot withdraw this agency in a sudden manner without cer- 
tain social evils resulting. Religious parties will indeed be placed on 
an equality, and, as I think, a great historical wrong will be expiated, 
because the Irish Church has ever been a historical wrong. Any man 
who goes into its history will be more and more convinced of this. 
But still the evil passions fostered by religious inequality will remain; 
and I fear the results of these passions will be more disastrous when 
once the controlling force of law is withdrawn. 

"Secondly, Mr. Gladstone's policy appears to me not so much in 
itself, as in reference to many who are supporting it, to be an anti- 
Establishment policy, and the probable result of it will extend much 
beyond what he anticipates. 

"It is all very well to say that there is no logical connection between 
the Church of Scotland or the Church of England and that of Ireland. 
There is no logical connection; but political movements do not move by 
logic. Unquestionably when you think of the principles that are mov- 
ing many parties who strongly support Mr. Gladstone, you cannot but 
apprehend grave results from them. As there are dogmatic State 
Churchmen, so there are dogmatic anti-State Churchmen. There are 
men who look upon the State Church principle as an irreligious prin- 
ciple, a principle for the destruction of which they are bound to con- 
tend. I think these men are profoundly mistaken. I look upon the 
connection between Church and State, rightly regarded, as a great 
blessing. . . . It is not my business to indicate here what I would 
have considered a wiser policy. But I may say frankly that my own 



DISESTABLISHMENT. 243 

view would have been to continue in a greatly modified and reduced 
form the Established Church of Ireland, and apply its superfluous rev- 
enues to the general religious uses of the Irish people. I know it is in 
vain to speak of that in this Assembly; I know that the very name of 
Popery excites such a feeling that it is in vain to speak of supporting 
it in any shape. But nevertheless, this has been the policy of all our 
great statesmen, the traditional policy of the great political minds of our 
country since the time of Pitt; and I believe that if the feelings of 
the country had permitted it to have been carried out, Ireland would 
have been this day in a state for which every one would have reason 
to rejoice." 

It was impossible for Gladstone to avoid seeing the difficulties, 
which, however, he would grandly master. An idea of these obstruc- 
tions to his success is conveyed in a letter of Lord Houghton: "Glad- 
stone is the great triumph; but he owns that he has to drive a four-in- 
hand, consisting of English Liberals, English Dissenters, Scotch Pres- 
byterians, and Irish Catholics; he requires all his courage to look these 
difficulties in the face, and trust to surmount them." 

Dukes and earls, the Archbishop of York, the Bishop of Oxford, 
and the Bishop of London, might address public meetings to their 
hearts' content; Gladstone saw that the day of his triumph was coming. 
Disraeli taunted Mr. Gladstone's disagreeing party with conducting an 
unseemly fight over expected plunder. The excitement in the House 
of Commons was intense, and Lord Derby was foolish enough to de- 
clare that the Llouse of Lords would throw out the Bill if it came up 
from the House of Commons. This was the chance of a lifetime. Of 
course, Gladstone's denunciation was vehement and indignant and 
crushing. Disraeli mysteriously hinted that the Queen had told him 
something which he could not tell, and the conjuror again trusted to 
magic. He was chafed and wounded in the eager assault of his foes. 
The moral height upon which Mr. Gladstone stood was discernible by 
all, even though he discharged volleys of wrath against the hollow Con- 
servatism which pretended to be wise and patriotic. Disraeli's position 
was more serious, because he was so much alone, and he could not 



244 GLADSTONE: A BIOGRAPHICAL STUDY. 

afford to lose his coolness. He was adroit, subtle, dexterous, and held 
his ground with remarkable strength. 

Until July 31st Parliament was not prorogued. After an appeal to 
the country, Disraeli announced that his colleagues had resigned their 
offices. The Queen summoned Gladstone to Windsor to constitute a 
new Government. He was at last Prime, Minister of England, and be- 
hind him was a majority representing the sentiments of human progress. 
No longer was he the servant of Dukes of Newcastle or otherwhere, or 
the voice of timorous and scholastic Oxford. He had become instead 
the Tribune of the people. 

Gladstone made Mr. Bright President of the Board of Trade, and 
otherwise made himself strong in his lieutenants. He had announced 
his purpose at least to test Ireland and to demonstrate, if possible, if 
Ireland could be governed according to Irish ideas. He was met by 
unsuspected difffculties. Three-score years had poured their wealth of 
experience and culture into him, and he confronted his problems with 
astonishing vivacity. By his side was Mr. W. E. Forster as Vice-Presi- 
dent of the Council, as incessant a worker as Gladstone himself. Many 
of his closest friends knew that the question of disestablishment involved 
and would lead to a consideration of the Irish problem in genera^ 

March ist had come, and Gladstone had introduced his measure for 
the Disestablishment of the Irish Church. So intense was his thought, 
and so impetuous was his stream of reasoning, so clearly did Gladstone 
understand himself upon this subject, that Disraeli, who was accustomed 
to say that Gladstone was likely to be "inebriated by the exuberance of 
his own verbosity," declared that the oration, three hours long, 
had not a sentence which any thorough consideration of the subject 
could have marked out as superfluous. 

The proposition of Gladstone was that what had hitherto been a 
State Establishment should become a free Episcopal Church. He con- 
cluded his speech in the following memorable sentences: 

"I do not know in what country so great a change, so great a 
transition, has been proposed for the ministers of a religious communion 
who have enjoyed for many ages the preferred position of an Established 
Church. I can well understand that to manv in the Irish Establishment 



DISESTABLISHMENT. 245 

such a change appears to be nothing less than ruin and destruction; 
from the height on which they now stand the future is to them an abyss, 
and their fears recall the words used in 'King Lear,' when Edgar en- 
deavors to persuade Glo'ster that he has fallen over the cliffs of Dover, 

and says: 

''Ten masts at each make not the altitude 
Which thou hast perpendicularly fallen; 
Thy life's a miracle! 

"And yet but a little while after the old man is relieved from his de- 
lusion, and finds he has not fallen at all. So I trust that when, instead of 
the fictitious and adventitious aid on which we have too long taught 
the Irish Establishment to lean, it should come to place its trust in 
its own resources, in its own great mission, in all that it can draw from 
the energy of its ministers and its members, and the high hopes and 
promises of the Gospel that it teaches, it will find that it has entered 
upon a new era of existence — an era bright with hope and potent for 
good. At any rate, I think the day has certainly come when an end is 
finally to be put to that union, not between the Church and religious 
association, but between the Establishment and the State, which was 
commenced under circumstances little auspicious, and has endured to 
be a source of unhappiness to Ireland and of discredit and scandal to 
England. There is more to say. This measure is in every sense a great 
measure — great in its principles, great in the multitude of its dry, tech- 
nical, but interesting detail, and great as a testing measure; for it will 
show for one and all of us of what metal we are made. Upon us all it 
brings a great responsibility — great and foremost upon those who 
occupy this bench. We are especially chargeable — nay, deeply guilty — 
if we have either dishonestly, as some think, or even prematurely or 
unwisely challenged so gigantic an issue. I know well the punishments 
that follow rashness in public affairs, and that ought to fall upon those 
men, those Phaetons of politics, who, with hands unequal to the task, 
attempt to guide the chariot of the sun. But the responsibility, though 
heavy, does not exclusively press upon us; it presses upon every man 
who has to take part in the discussion and decision upon this Bill. 
Every man approaches the discussion under the most solemn obliga- 



246 GLADSTONE: A BIOGRAPHICAL STUDY. 

tions to raise the level of his vision and expand its scope in proportion 
with the greatness of the matter in hand. The working of our constitu- 
tional Government itself is upon its trial, for I do not believe there ever 
was a time when the wheels of legislative machinery were set in motion, 
under conditions of peace and order and constitutional regularity, to 
deal with a question greater or more profound. And more especially, 
sir, is the credit and fame of this great assembly involved; this assembly 
which has inherited through many ages the accumulated honors of bril- 
liant triumphs, of peaceful but courageous legislation, is now called 
upon to address itself to a task which would, indeed, have demanded all 
the best energies of the very best among your fathers and your an- 
cestors. I believe it will prove to be worthy of the task. Should it fail, 
even the fame of the House of Commons will suffer disparagement; 
, should it succeed, even that fame, I venture to say, will receive no small, 
no insensible addition. I must not ask gentlemen opposite to concur 
in this view, emboldened as I am by the kindness they have shown me in 
listening with patience to a statement which could not have been other 
than tedious; but I pray them to bear with me for a moment while, for 
myself and my colleagues, I say we are sanguine of the issue. We 
believe, and for my part I am deeply convinced, that when the final 
consummation shall arrive, and when the words are spoken that shall 
give the force of law to the work embodied in this measure — the work 
of peace and justice — those words will be echoed upon every shore 
where the name of Ireland or the name of Great Britain has been heard, 
and the answer to them will come back in the approving verdict of 
civilized mankind." 

Disraeli kept the way brilliant with explosive generalities and the 
ground was hot with his sarcasm, which ran like a fire amidst dry leaves, 
while he trained his heavier cannon upon Gladstone's propositions. He 
talked about the importance of religion, and handed out tawdry imita- 
tions of cloth of gold with commonplaces regarding trust-money and the 
Protestant Church which he was so heroically defending, and he closed 
by reminding Mr. Gladstone of the certain effect of this legislation on 
the position of the Church of England. Here perhaps he erred not. 
The only blood he now drew was when he indicated that the effect of the 



DISESTABLISHMENT. 247 

Bill was to give the landlords a large amount of the spoils of the Church. 
Gladstone's proposition to spend this sum upon eleemosynary institu- 
tions hardly withstood the shock of Disraeli's attack. The second 
reading of the Bill was carried by a majority of 118. Lord Stanley, 
whose silence was thought to indicate that he was willing for a com- 
promise, gave England a phrase which set many men going about say- 
ing that they were in favor of "saving as much as possible out of the 
fire." At last Stanley spoke in excellent phrase, offending the Conser- 
vatives because he went so far from hereditary creeds, and antagonizing 
the Liberals because he did not follow the logic of his convictions in the 
direction of Disestablishment. 

It cannot be denied that the Irish people behaved badly, and that 
fresh outbreaks of agrarian outrages annoyed Gladstone exceedingly. 
Warren and Costello, two released Fenians, eulogized the murder of 
the Duke of Edinburgh, and rejoiced that Gladstone was going to 
"abolish the Church." Ireland's gratitude to Gladstone never had a 
very wise or honorable way of exhibiting itself, and just now the Liberal 
leaders feared that Ireland's agitations and repeated acts of lawlessness 
would create a feeling in England which would not permit justice to be 
done in the case of the Church. Mr. Gladstone's associate in office, 
Mr. Forster, offered valuable legislation to correct abuses which had 
undoubtedly produced barbarism and ignorance. 

There was one subject alone commanding superlative attention. 
Everybody looked to the House of Lords. The opposition had gath- 
ered again and privilege arrogated the right to put down progress. 
John Bright warned them of the probable results of their obstinacy. The 
Bill passed, and July 29, 1869, saw the Irish Church disestablished. 

Ireland had at last gained the ear of Parliament. O'Connell had 
not prophesied vainly and Ireland was certainly not likely to lose the 
opportunity, now that she had England's attention fixed upon her. John 
Bright suggested that they would better hold a good long session in 
Dublin, and that, there and then, all the Irish questions should be sub- 
mitted and Irish domestic matters attended to comprehensively and 
at once. The land was reverberating with the cry from Ireland asking 
for fixity of tenure, and that cry would have been heard more certainly 



248 GLADSTONE: A BIOGRAPHICAL STUDY. 

if there had not come from the same hot-headed population demands 
for wholesale confiscation, and expressions of the general expectation 
amongst the peasantry that things would culminate in every Irishman's 
having a little farm of his own. 

Gladstone's Bill for the reform of the system of Land Tenure in 
Ireland was taking its form in his mind, while the landlords, who had 
hitherto been undisturbed, were volcanic in their expressions of wrath, 
and, while also, at a meeting in Ireland a tenant gravely advocated the 
British Government's providing every family with enough free-hold 
land tc give them support. John Stuart Mill, Henry Fawcett and other 
political economists sought a means of establishing peasant proprietors 
in Ireland. A confusion of opinion reigned; stormy seas were before 
Mr. Gladstone. He was meantime resting himself in reading the re- 
views of his book called "Juventus Mundi," and entering into pleasant 
controversies as to whether Athene is, in accordance with the idea of 
Sanskrit scholars, The Dawn; or as to whether he ought to have in- 
sisted, as he did, upon an antagonism between Pelasgian and Hellenic. 
He followed this program by bringing upon his head a fierce opposi- 
tion, because, in sympathy with his broad view as to the functions of 
the Church of England, he had selected Dr. Temple, one of the essay- 
ists in the famously liberal book known as "Essays and Reviews," to be 
Bishop of Exeter. 

Lord Derby died in October, and no one regretted his loss more 
than Mr. Gladstone. They had studied together on various topics, 
including Homer, and each had been accused of political inconsistency. 
Their roads had crossed, for Derby had begun as a Whig and ended as 
a leader of the Conservatives, and Gladstone had remarked upon his 
consenting to the trick by which Disraeli caught the Tories who passed 
so democratic a bill as the measure broadening the Elective Franchise. 
Lord Derby, at length, represented the fading yesterday, as Glad- 
stone represented the dawning to-morrow. While Gladstone was seek- 
ing to put before England so comprehensive and prophetic a measure 
as his Irish Land Bill, Lord Derby was standing in the House of Lords, 
almost weeping over the resistless progress of the reforming spirit. 
Gladstone had found no easier way of amusing the British public than 



DISESTABLISHMENT. 249 

getting into a controversy with Lord Derby on finance, for the latter 
knew ahnost nothing of the subject, and yet he was an admirable de- 
bater, and he had what Gladstone did not possess in debate, a gay and 
rich humor. Gladstone and he had furnished classical quotations in 
Parliament, when almost every one else had forsaken the practice of 
offering information understood by only a few, and no one more than 
Gladstone honored the incorruptible and brave gentleman. Lord Stan- 
ley, his son, was now elevated to the House of Peers. 

The spirits of Gladstone at this time reflect their light and warmth 
in this letter extracted from Mr. Pagan's delightful biography of 
Panizzi: 

"My Dear Sir: 

" 'Like a good fellow,' I will certainly dine with you on Tuesday, the 
25th instant. 

"There is an Italian opera buffa, in which a gentleman who wishes 
to become a poet, and takes lessons as to the mechanism of verse from a 
poet, wishing to ask his master to dine with him, tries to convey his in- 
vitation in an hendecasyllable, and begins, 'Volete pranzare meco oggi?' 
(Will you dine with me to-day?) but it would not do, so he changed, 'Vo- 
lete pranzare meco domani?'(Will you dine with me to-morrow?) It would 
not do either, and the poet suggested at once, 'Volete pranzare meco oggi 
e domani?' (Will you dine with me to-day and to-morrow?) a very good 
line, and so it was settled. Now I have made a line for our dinner here, 
of which you must approve. 'Pranzate meco il ventitre e quattro' (Dine 
with me the 23rd and 24th.) The poetry is not good; have patience, and, 
'like a good fellow,' come both days. Yours ever, 

"A. PANIZZI." 

Too soon, indeed. Gladstone was to sit by the bedside of his beloved 
friend, who thanked the Premier for a friendship which forgot affairs of 
State while he guided Panizzi through the Valley of the Shadow. 



CHAPTER XXVIII. 
TRIUMPHANT LIBERALISM. 

We are now confronting an era in Gladstone's life and in the devel- 
opment of the new movement in English Government. Never did an 
administration astonish a country with such a succession of nobly con- 
ceived and eloquently advocated measures as was now about to be in- 
troduced. Gladstone infused his own party with his supreme conviction 
that these measures were the logical outgrowth of all that the cen- 
turies of constitutional monarchial government in England had brought 
forth, and the Liberal party, for the four years following, caught and 
reflected the luminous quality of his mind and the magnetic influence 
which his spirit exercised upon all who came in contact with him. 

England's navy was made more certainly mistress of the seas than 
ever before. Gladstone had spoken of England and her relation to the 
sea many times. No more significant words than these concerning 
England's supremacy on the ocean have been spoken: 

"Shakespeare saw, three centuries ago, that a peculiar strength of 
England lay in her insular and maritime position. And yet no long 
period had then elapsed since that little arm of ocean, which France still 
calls the Sleeve, had been from England into France, if not from France 
towards England, the familiar pathway of armed hosts. The prevision 
of the poet has been realized in subsequent history. Three hundred more 
years have passed; and if during that long period, we have, some three 
or four times with no great benefit to our fame^ planted the hostile 
foot in France, the shores of England have remained inviolate, and the 
twenty miles of sea have thus far been found, even against the great 
Napoleon, an impregnable fortification. 

"It may be said the case is now different. It is; and the differences 
are in our favor. Now, as then, the voyage is a danger; now, as then, 
leagues of sea, regarded as mere space, do not yield, as an occupied 
country may be made to yield, the subsistence of an invading army. 
Now, as then, the necessary operation of landing afifords a strong vantage- 

250 



TRIUMPHANT LIBERALISM. 251 

ground of resistance to the defending force. Now, as then, the sea details 
some uncertainty in the arrival of supplies. But now, as it was not 
then, maritime supremacy has become the proud, perhaps the indefectible, 
inheritance of England." 

It was not strange therefore that he should introduce reforms in the 
management of the Navy of Great Britain. Abuses in the Army, es- 
pecially in the direction of promotion to command by purchase had 
grown to be scandalous and chronic. A complete reorganization was 
made and that system was finally destroyed. Education had its cham- 
pionship, school-boards were established in every district, and local 
rates were assessed for their support. A new system of balloting which 
put an end to abominable corruptions was carried. Liberalism was in 
the plenitude of its powder. We may look at each one of these as a sep- 
arate point upon which the genius of Gladstone exhibited its strength 
and luminousness. 

On the 15th of February, the House of Commons w^as crowded 
in every part. It was in the air that a^reat and definite step w^as to 
be taken that day, by the leader of the party in power, in the direction 
of constitutional government. The fact that this athlete was willing to 
grasp so many momentous questions at once amazed and delighted 
English pluck. He proposed his Land Bill. 

Whatever might be the practical effect of the introduction of this 
measure upon the country, every well-informed Englishman knew that 
the hour had come when a consideration of its principles was likely to 
commence working out in Anglo-Saxon civilization a result unsur- 
passed in the history of human political affairs. The principle of Glad- 
stone's Bill was in harmony with all the ideas which, from Alfred to Vic- 
toria, had conspired to the development of the institutions of popular 
government. It was impossible to look upon that principle for a mo- 
ment without being convinced that it was right, and that the whole 
system of land-holding in Ireland rested upon a principle utterly op- 
posed to it, and entirely wrong. A feudal baron, whose personality had 
shrivelled in the course of centuries now seemed to vanish, as the 
theory that any landlord could possess legally a limitless right over the 
land in Ireland faded like an ugly dream. Before that breathless and 



252 GLADSTONE: A BIOGRAPHICAL STUDY. 

crowded auditory, his face white with the excitement of thought, his 
eyes burning out with their gem-Hke intensity as he spoke, Gladstone 
took these relics of a barbarous past which still lingered in the body of 
British law, and pulverized them to dust in the presence of the luminous 
statements he made, founded upon principles which have provided the 
foundation of modern statesmanship. There has been no better abridg- 
ment of Gladstone's speech than that contained in the history of these 
times written by Mr. Bright's friend, Mr. Molesworth, and this ran as 
follows : 

"In the first place," he said, "the bill proposes the enlargement of 
the power of the limited owner in regard both to lease and rate. Assist- 
ance will be given by loans of public money to occupiers disposed and 
able to purchase the cultivated lands now in their occupation where 
landlords are wilHng to sell. Facilities will also be given landlords, by 
means of loans, to prepare waste lands for occupation, by making roads 
and erecting necessary buildings; and to assist purchasers of reclaimed 
lands upon the security of an adequate nature. These transactions will 
be managed by the Board of Works in Dublin. With regard to occupa- 
tion, the new law will be administered by a court of arbitration and a 
civil-bill court, with an appellate tribunal consisting of two, and in case 
of necessity three, judges of assize; the judges having power to reserve a 
case for a court for land causes in Dublin, to be composed of equity and 
common-law judges. 

"At present there are four descriptions of holdings in Ireland which 
I have thought it my duty to keep specially in view. The first of these is 
known as the Ulster custom. This custom, where it exists, the bill will 
convert into a law, to which the new courts will give effect. The second 
class of holdings are those which prevail under customs and usages other 
than that of Ulster; and these, too, are to be legalized, subject to the 
restriction that the tenant may claim the benefit of them only in cases 
where he is disturbed in his tenancy by 'the act of his landlord, if he has 
not been evicted for non-payment of rent, and has not sublet or sub- 
divided his holdings without the landlord's consent. All arrears of rent 
and all damages done by the tenant to the farm may be pleaded by the 
landlord as a setoff, and the landlord may bar the pleading of any such 
custom, if he chooses to give his tenant a lease for not less than thirty- 
one years. 

"Where the buildings are not connected with any custom there will 
be a scale of damages for evictions. In the case of holdings above fifty 



TRIUMPHANT LIBERALISM. 253 

pounds a year, the parties may contract themselves out of the scale of 
damages, on the landlord giving a thirty-one years' lease, and under- 
taking to execute necessary improvements. 

"In cases of eviction the following v^^ill be the scale of damages: If 
the holding is not valued in the public valuation over iio a year, the 
judge may award the holder a sum not exceeding seven years' rent; 
•between iio and £50 a year, a sum not exceeding five years' rent; and 
above £100 a year, not exceeding two years' rent. 

"In addition to this, the question of permanent buildings and the 
reclamation of land will have to be dealt with. 

"For the purpose of promoting improvements, advances of money 
will be authorized to landlords, to enable them to defray any charge raised 
against them in the way of improvement in the case of tenants retiring by 
an act of their own. The principle on which I propose to deal with 
improvements is, that they must have a rentable value and be suitable 
to the holdings, and the burden of proof will be laid on the landlords; 
and the measure will not be limited to future improvements, but will 
extend to those already made. No claim will be allowed for any improve- 
ment made twenty years before the passing of the act, unless it is an im- 
provement of the nature of a permanent building, or a reclamation of 
land; nor if the tenant holds under an existing lease or contract which 
forbids it; and in the case of past improvements the court may take 
into consideration the terms for which, and the terms on which, they 
have already been enjoyed by the tenant. No claim will be allowed in 
respect of improvements contrary to a future contract voluntarily entered 
into by the tenant, and which are not required for the due cultivation of 
the farm. 

"As to lands under lease, a landlord may exempt his lands from being 
subject to any custom except the Ulster custom, provided that he agrees 
to give his tenant a lease for thirty-one years; but the lease must leave 
to the tenant at the close of that term a right to claim compensation under 
three heads — namely, tillages and manures, permanent buildings, and 
reclamation of lands. 

"From the moment the bill is passed every Irishman will be abso- 
lutely responsible for every contract into which he enters. Non-pay- 
ment of rent will be held as a bar to any claim on the landlord, reserv- 
ing, however, discretion to the courts in certain cases. Notices to quit 
will have to be for twelve months instead of six, and date from the last 
day of the current year; and the notice must have a stamp duty of two 
shillings and sixpence. 

"The bill also proposes to deal with the question of the county cess, 



254 GLADSTONE: A BIOGRAPHICAL STUDY. 

which it will assimilate to the poor-rate. In every new tenancy it will 
have to be paid in moieties by landlord and tenant, as the poor-rate is 
now paid, and in every old tenancy imder £4 a year the occupier will 
be at once relieved." 

At the conclusion of Gladstone's exhaustive speech on this occasion, 
he met with the most enthusiastic congratulation, even by his foes. He 
had redeemed his pledges to the country; the Tory had shuffled olf his 
Tory habits and become a thorough Liberal. Oxford scholasticism had 
been consumed at last by the fire of an intense devotion to humanity 
and justice, — the true Gladstone was delivered — and he now proceeded 
to overstrain the mental and moral machinery of John Bull. He was 
irritating to the people who wanted only a quiet and motherly family 
physician. The ''Saturday Review" acknowledged his genius, but said: 

"It may also happen that a doctor who, from his daring and deter- 
mination in the use of heroic remedies, is especially serviceable at the 
critical moment of a desperate disorder, is not the best man to do the 
work of the ordinary family attendant, and to deal with the small ail- 
ments of everyday life. A weakness for heroic treatment is apt to become 
a dangerous passion. It has more than once happened that a skillful surgeon 
has been suspected of a predilection for amputation, just as a 'daring 
pilot in extremity' has been accused of whistling for a wind — 

"Pleased with the danger, when the waves went high. 
He sought the storm; but, for a calm unfit, 
Would steer too nigh the sands to boast his wit." 

Mr. Forster's measure looking toward national education for all, on 
a plan w'hich should prevent England from lapsing into ignorance as 
she progressed toward Liberal policies in Church and State, became a 
law. It was perhaps well for Gladstone, who, later on, had to rely upon 
the services of Dissenters for any sort of successful championship of his 
plans for Ireland, that he had comparatively little to do with the man- 
agement of the Bill, and that therefore he did not of¥end hopelessly 
the Non-Conformists who w^ere greatly annoyed at the attitude 
of the Government toward their religious bodies. Forster's Bill 
was tolerant of the Roman Catholic Church and her position on educa- 
tion. The cry went up: "No State aid to any but undenominational 



TRIUMPHANT LIBERALISM. 255 

schools." This cry was repeated most earnestly by the very people 
who were most in favor of the principle that a popular government 
ought to look out after popular education. Alany of Gladstone's friends 
trembled for his future. The Roman Catholics never would forget what 
Mr. Forster and Mr. Gladstone were ready to do to satisfy their con- 
sciences, and it was ecjually sure that a large section of the Liberal party 
called Non-Conformists never would forget what Mr. Forster and Mr. 
Gladstone failed to do to satisfy theirs. He was again accused of being 
at heart a Roman Catholic. After all the tumult, it became apparent 
very soon that a great step had been taken by the Gladstone Administra- 
tion in the direction of intelligence and the safety of popular institutions. 
By and by, doubtless, the Dissenters would remember, however, that 
their sentiments had been outraged in this matter. In the course of the 
discussion of Mr. Forster's bill much bad feeling was engendered. An 
intense opponent averred that Gladstone had led one section of the Lib- 
eral party through the Valley of Humiliation, adding, "once bit, twice 
shy, and we can't stand this sort of thing much longer." Gladstone 
was almost sublime, as he said: "I hope that my honorable friend will 
not continue his support to the Government one moment longer than 
he deems it consistent with his sense of duty and right. For God's sake, 
sir, let him withdraw it the moment he thinks it better for the cause 
he has at heart that he should do so. . , . W'e must recollect that 
we are the Government of the Queen, and that those who have assumed 
the high responsibility of adminstering the affairs of this Empire must 
endeavor to forget the parts in the whole, and must, in the great 
measures they introduce into the House, propose to themselves no 
meaner or narrower object, — no other object than the welfare of the 
Empire at large." 

If ever a man found himself heavy laden with the peculiarities of 
those who were placed, or who placed themselves, in positions of in- 
fluence and trust, Mr. Gladstone had been that man. He had loaded 
up with the prejudices and passions, the contentiousness and bigotry of 
the Irish people, at a time when their lil crty was in sight, and when 
they were most apt at eclipsing even their unenviable record as bellig- 
erents on general principles, he had on his back a crowd of his own 



256 GLADSTONE: A BIOGRAPHICAL STUDY. 

party, the Dissenters, who were out of sorts with him and he soon had 
another section of Liberals who opposed him on another matter of great 
importance. 

There can be no doubt that Gladstone's eager nature looked forward 
with much hope to the abolition of the purchase system in the British 
Army. It was an abuse of long standing and had grown flagrant with 
the lapse of years. Officers dreamed not of such a thing as promotion 
according to merit, in the regular troops. True, there were certain 
branches of the service, and there were certain regiments in which this 
obnoxious system of obtaining commissions and promotion by pur- 
chase, did not exist. But except in a few regiments of the army of 
England, it is now almost incredible, but it was the rule that these things 
were practically on sale. A commission had been bought and could be 
sold at an advance, just as any other ware. The law of supply and de- 
mand controlled the price of the same, and the Horse Guards might 
mention one price, but if the holder valued it at another, and somebody 
wanted to remain in the English Army with a commission, or to obtain 
a promotion, as the case might be, badly enough to pay a very much 
larger price, this circumstance fixed the sum. It was amazing to find 
how much of respectability arrayed itself against any change. The 
haughty and influential classes had beheld Lord Stanley, Mr. Trevelyan 
and Sir DeLacy Evans laughed out of Parliament, or at least silenced 
and defeated, when, at other times, they had urged this reform. But 
Gladstone was determined, and his government defied the aristocracy. 
Never were the drawing-rooms of distinguished members of the Army, 
dukes, earls and the like, more chilly to Gladstone than when this demo- 
cratic idea stood on its feet in Parliament and fought against caste and 
privilege and corruption. To easy-going, fashionable gentlemen, it 
seemed positively dreadful that a man should have a promotion just 
because he merited it, or that a nobleman, who had obtained personal 
property in the form of a commission in the Army, should not be able 
to sell it just as he would a horse which someone wanted more than its 
present owner. The cry that this whole crusade was "another fit of 
Americanism introduced as an abomination into English military life," 
was repeated by lords and ladies, and it was almost pathetic to witness 




GLADSTONE DELIVERING A FAMOUS SPEECH 



TRIUMPHANT LIBERALISM. 257 

the effusiveness with which men who had never been suspected of caring 
much about "economy in governmental affairs" pleaded that this meas- 
ure would take out of the hands of private dealers in commissions a kind 
of business, the absence of which would compel the Government to give 
compensation to the leaders of the army, who, of course, now no longer 
might conduct their enterprise of buying and selling these wares. 

Gladstone's government had run up against the terrible word "econ- 
omy," and, as he was unable to save all the cargo of his ship. Army reor- 
ganization was thrown overboard, but, with a fixed determination that 
the system of purchase should be overthrown, the Government carried 
the Bill on the third reading in the House of Commons, early in July, 
1871. Of course the House of Lords was horrified at having to con- 
sider such a measure, and fought it with unwonted strength and shrew^d- 
ness. Fearing, however, the doom which this persistent opposition of 
just measures might invite, and which was likely to fall some time upon 
the head of this party, an amendment was shrewdly invented, which, by 
the efforts of the Duke of Richmond, was carried, and which relieved 
the House of Lords of the Bill, for the time being. 

Now Gladstone did a bold thing. He persuaded the Queen to cancel 
the Royal Warrant which made purchase in the Army possible under the 
law — for the truth was that only under the Royal Warrant had the 
system of purchase been carried on. An annulment of the Royal regu- 
lation, therefore, completely settled the question. 

November ist came. The Royal Warrant was issued, and the House 
of Lords had no question of importance before it. They passed the Bill 
with a graceless and angry spirit, publishing, however, the causes of 
their discomfiture. 

Whether this was a triumph of Liberalism, pure and simple, is not 
a question now, but soon it became a question in England. There are 
some victories which even a Gladstone may scarcely afford. The Lords 
had censured the Government because it had attained its end by the 
"exercise of the Royal prerogative and without the aid of Parliament." 
It was an hour in which Mr. Disraeli's lofty sneer strode forth with 
unwonted vigor, and most fiery was his denunciation of the action of 
the Ministry. Henry Fawcett, one of the most noble-minded and capa- 
17 



258 GLADSTONE: A BIOGRAPHICAL STUDY. 

ble members of Parliament, called Mr. Gladstone's attention to the fact 
that he had done just the sort of thing a Liberal Government ought to 
condemn. Doubtless Gladstone had also played unfairly with the deli- 
cate lords. It was ungraceful in him, and unworthy of him to have 
defeated them in this manner. It might be constitutional and all that, 
as his adviser. Sir Roundell Palmer, agreed, but Gladstone had per- 
suaded Queen Victoria to do a thing in the exercise of her Royal pre- 
rogative which only a Puritan like Cromwell, in a different manner, or 
a Royalist like Charles the First, in a manner peculiar to himself, might 
have done. It was all really too bad, but it was done. 

Gladstone's Government could not be blind to the fact that this 
was a good time for repealing the Ecclesiastical Titles Bill, to which 
attention had already been called, as a most ludicrous and inefficient 
monument of afifrighted bigotry, emanating from the genius of Lord 
Russell when the Protestants were in fear of the Pope's taking England 
unto himself twenty years before. The quiet way in which this Bill 
was repealed contrasted favorably with the tumult in which it was 
passed. 

More important, however, in the direction of true Liberalism was 
Gladstone's position on the University Tests question. It was an old 
question, and had been discussed for many years in England. Nearly 
forty years before, a motion had been offered, asking leave to bring in 
a Bill for the admission of Non-Conformists to both the Universities, 
and Lord John Russell had spoken in its defense. From time to time 
this demand for justice to Dissenters had reappeared, and more than a 
score of years before, he who was now Dean of Westminster, Arthur 
P. Stanley, Gladstone's school friend at Seaforth, presented a prayer 
for the appointment of a Royal commission of inquiry. Commissioners 
were appointed, and a report was made in 1832. In 1854 the recom- 
mendations of the commissioners were so far adopted that a Bill for the 
reform of the University of Oxford was brought in by Lord Aberdeen's 
Government, and one hundred members of the House of Commons 
prayed Lord John Russell to introduce clauses abolishing the religious 
tests of Oxford. After repeated refusals, and after overcoming great 
difficulties, in various years, after incessant opposition upon the part of 



TRIUMPHANT LIBERALISM. 259 

Conservatives, the principle in Gladstone's University Tests Bill was 
triumphant and Oxford and Cambridge opened their doors to lay stu- 
dents of any and every faith. Of course this long step forward in the 
direction of fn'onounced Liberalism exiled from Mr. Gladstone the 
timorous and the unfaithful. 

He saw, early in his career as Prime Minister, that something must 
be done in England to make the ballot more sacred and effective. Mr. 
Forster's Bill, introduced February 20, 1871, was conceived upon the 
philosophy that where suffrage meant so much as it must always mean 
in England, the abominations of the system hitherto in vogue ought 
speedily to be cleared away. Bribery must be prevented and intimi- 
dation rendered impossible, yet these outrages had been constantly 
growing in English political life. The Bill proposed to abolish dis- 
order at the time of the nomination of candidates, by providing that 
registered voters alone should nominate candidates by means of a paper 
upon which a proposer, a seconder, and eight assenters had placed 
their names. The Bill was carried, but the struggle was intense and 
bitter. It seems now almost incredible that such a measure should 
have been so ardently opposed. Surely Liberalism was lifting the con- 
science of England to unsuspected heights of endeavor. Gladstone had 
worked incessantly in the past for a broader Franchise. He was now 
convinced that if England was to retain any fragment of her power 
as a secure constitutional monarchy, voters must be protected against 
the emissaries of corruption of every sort. The House of Lords had 
fought it, but they had only delayed its progress. The system of secret 
voting commended itself to such men as John Bright and their follow- 
ers, though John Stuart Mill opposed it on the ground that "conceal- 
ment is unmanly." The amendment introduced in the House of Lords, 
which proposed to make the ballot optional, was thrown out by the 
Commons. The privileged classes were determined that landlords 
might still exercise authority over tenants; the House of Commons was 
determined that secrecy should be granted to the tenant and protection 
as he voted. The success of this measure has laid the foundation for a 
vast reform in the electoral system of England. 

Mr. Gladstone, however, was certain to more truly offend the sensi- 



26o GLADSTONE: A BIOGRAPHICAL STUDY. 

bilities of Conservative England in the course of a debate in which he 
said something on woman's suffrage. It was sure that this subject 
would come up after the ballot had been so purged and guarded as to 
make a woman independent of all influences whatsoever, if she might 
be allowed to vote. Gladstone frankly said that he did not see any 
harm in allowing women to vote. Toryism shuddered at the prospect. 
He soon had opportunity, however, for the proving of his conservatism 
on other points. 

It was impossible that Gladstone should succeed in the disestablish- 
ment of the Irish Church, especially because it was Protestant, and not 
invite the activity of those who, like the busy and able Mr. Miall, had 
been thinking that the disestablishment of a National Church even in 
England might be a good and desirable thing to undertake. So no one 
was much astonished when that redoubtable Non-Conformist offered 
his motion to use the policy adopted and executed on the Irish 
Church upon the English establishment. Gladstone's churchmanship 
met the challenge at once and with unwonted zeal. He warned the 
belligerent dissenter as to the size of the job he had proposed, and said: 

The question of the Irish Church sinks into insignificance — I mean 
material insignificance — beside the question of the English Church. It 
is not the number of its members or the millions of its revenue; it is the 
mode in which it has been from a period shortly after the Christian era, 
and has never for 1,300 years ceased to be, the Church of the country, 
having been at every period ingrained with the hearts and the feelings 
of the great mass of the people, and having intertwined itself with the 
local habits and feelings, so that I do not believe there lives the man who 
could either divine the amount and character of the work my hon. 
friend would have to undertake were he doomed to be responsible for 
the execution of his own propositions, or who could in the least degree 
define or anticipate the consequences by which it would be attended." 

The motion was overwhelmingly defeated. Perhaps Mr. Miall's 
cause may also be able to wait. 

Gladstone's Government could not forget the workingman, and 
Oxford was proven clearly right when in 1865 she prophesied that this 
statesman was really in earnest about helping the unprivileged majority 
in England. 



TRIUMPHANT LIBERALISM. 261 

The Trades-Union Bill was introduced, and laws which outraged 
justice and imposed exceedingly heavy burdens upon the workingmen 
were repealed or moderated. However, Mr. Gladstone had no Glad- 
stone to propose his Budgets and explain them in such a manner as 
to fascinate, if not thoroughly inform, the waiting people, and he was 
soon deeply embarrassed by his Chancellor of the Exchequer, Mr. 
Robert Lowe. He could far more easily bear such abuse as the following 
than the effect of such a mistake as Lowe's, for Gladstone knew that 
hate in the breast of the rhymester had overshot the mark: 

"When the G. O. M. goes down to his doom 

He will ride in a fiery c'hariot^ 
And sit in state, on a red-hot plate, 

Between Satan and Judas Iscariot. 
Says the Devil, 'We're rather full, you see. 

But I'll do the best I can; 
I'll let Ananias and Judas go free. 

And take in the Grand Old Man!' 

Gone from the cares of office! 

Gone from the head of affairs ! 
Gone in the head, they tell us! 

Gone — whither, no one cares!" 



CHAPTER XXIX. 
COMPLICATIONS AND PERILS. 

Lowe was an antagonist or an ally so brilliant and resourceful at 
many points that his very weaknesses accentuated his own partic- 
ular powers. He appears with Gladstone as a boy at Eton, and even 
there, in some fugitive writings, he gave evidence of that power of 
statement, afifluence of thought, and resources of almost vitriolic sar- 
casm which served him well as a really great leader-writer, if not a 
forceful speaker, in later days. He was a vigorous debater and an 
indomitable defender of principles which he never forsook up to 
the last. Without oratorical gifts, he yet wielded an opposition to 
popular suffrage with which Gladstone had to reckon whenever the 
latter dealt with the elective franchise. Tenacious to the last degree, 
his contempt was visited upon the reformers who cared for the toilers 
and the philanthropists who sought legislation favorable to the poor. 
In this year, as in 1867, his powers of acute thinking, joined with bitter 
invective, well-nigh overcame the defects of weak and tuneless utter- 
ance and a somewhat cold and too literary manner, and no one felt 
that the most searching and perhaps impressive argument had been 
made on these questions until Lowe had spoken. But he now blun- 
dered, brilliantly as was his wont. 

He came to propose a scheme to supply England's treasury with 
the income, to be received in part from the tax on matches. He cal- 
culated on 550,000 pounds from this source. His brilliant mind advo- 
cated the words: ^^ Ex luce lucellum" as a proper phrase to appear on 
every match box. People went about for explanation of the phrase. 
It was too much for John Bull's risibility, and while the manufac- 
turers of lucifer matches rose in opposition to the tax imposed, the 
English people had a good laugh, whether they understood the Latin 
device or not. 

No man can well resist the antagonism of the children, and Palace 
Yard was one day crowded with processions of boys and girls whose 

262 



COMPLICATIONS AND PERILS. 263 

business had been the selling of matches. It was only one of JMr. 
Lowe's unlucky hits. But it did not help Mr. Gladstone's Government 
with a class of people who were likely to think that Mr. Robert Lowe, 
as a Chancellor of the Exchequer, ought to have been engaged in 
larger business. It dwarfed the size of the whole administration in the 
public mind. 

When Lord Granville had succeeded Clarendon upon the death of 
the latter, June 27, 1870, he felicitated himself and the nation that 
everything was peaceful in all Europe. Within two weeks the Franco- 
Prussian war had broken out, and Gladstone's Government had an op- 
portunity to prove its fidelity to the Premier's well-known convictions 
with reference to non-intervention. The English Government did all 
that a brave, self-centered and successful political enterprise might do 
to maintain and cultivate peace. While generally the people sympa- 
thized with Prussia, one only need glance rapidly through the news- 
papers of the period to see how, in spite of the previous policy of 
Napoleon, when the Empire fell, England believed that Prussia had 
gone far enough. Gladstone was wise, calm, pacific, while Trafalgar 
Square rang with the shouts of a sympathetic multitude whose heart 
throbbed with France. On the 21st of July, Gladstone had told 
England that both of the contesting powers had made assurances that 
Belgium, Holland and other territory should be respected in their neu- 
trahty, and he explained to Disraeli the efficient condition of England's 
defenses. 

Now the sentiment arose in England that the Government ought 
to help the French because they were down. It looked at one time 
as though England would have to interfere to defend the neutrality 
of Belgium. Mr. Bright promptly placed his resignation in the hands 
of Mr. Gladstone, to be made use of in such a case. Gladstone had 
published an important article in the Edinburgh Review on Germany, 
France, and England, and it clarified the atmosphere. 

A Treaty had been made in 1856, which declared that the Black 
Sea was open to the ships of every nation, but Russia might have upon 
that sea only six small ships of war at the most. Prince Gortschakoff' s 
famous circular, in which the Russian Government announced, in the 



264 GLADSTONE: A BIOGRAPHICAL STUDY. 

name of the Emperor, that It would not stand by the provisions of the 
Treaty v/hich at that time were most important, between France and 
Germany, came to the seats of diplomacy in Europe with startling force. 
England telegraphed a vigorous protest, and Lord Granville and Mr. 
Gladstone found themselves in firm association with Prussia and Aus- 
tria and Italy on this delicate subject. A conference of the Great Powers 
was proposed, and its date was delayed only until the gates of Paris might 
open, and the French Minister be permitted to go to London to attend 
the meeting. The Prussian Government, however, refused safe conduct 
for him, and the conference, in the absence of the French representa- 
tive, abrogated that portion of the Treaty of 1856 which made the 
Black Sea neutral, and it permitted the ships of all friendly and allied 
powers to sail through the Dardanelles and the Bosphorus whenever 
peace was threatened. 

Keen was the criticism of the Government at this time. Sir Robert 
Peel made England think for the moment that the Gladstone Govern- 
ment was doing very little else but venturing, for he read numerous 
extracts from the foreign correspondence in which the word "venture" 
was used. Gladstone's foes said that this was the Gladstonian and 
Granvillian way of talking at a thing, and all England laughed. It was 
Peel's delight to call up the shadow of Lord Palmertson, who had a very 
bluff manner, and England remembered Gladstone's almost intemperate 
attack on Palmerston at an earlier date, when the noble lord was 
coquetting with France, and England laughed again. 

Meantime Gladstone, serene in the confidence of full information 
and adequate power, perceived how foolish were all these alarms. 
Punch, v/eek by week, was representing France as a glorious maiden, 
wounded and chained, and yet ardent with revenge. Every other nation 
was as anxious for peace as was England. But there were hundreds of 
orators who had caught Disraeli's thundering phrases, "the honor of 
England," and "a spirited foreign policy," which were but two of the 
high-sounding bits of speech which were passed, as by enchantment, 
from lip to lip. The result of it all was that Gladstone's Government 
was more successful than it could have been otherwise, in making effi- 
cient the British Army. "The honor of England" took that turn. 



CHAPTER XXX. 
THE "ALABAMA CLAIMS." 

We have spoken with the utmost freedom of Mr. Gladstone's faiUire 
to understand the true situation, when the war between the States in 
America brought to the side of freedom and republican government 
not only John Bright, but also Benjamin Disraeli, and led Gladstone 
to solemnly announce the breaking-up of the American Union. It is 
pleasant to turn from that blunder of Gladstone's to his attitude 
toward America when it was demanded of England that settlement 
be made for the losses suffered by American commerce at the time 
when Gladstone's hastily formed opinions were so far adopted by the 
English people as to permit the ravages of the Alabama and other 
British ships. Never did the Earl of Derby show his sagacity and 
humanity to better advantage than when he promptly avowed his faith 
that this question might be settled by arbitration. Perhaps the United 
States Senate, which rejected Reverdy Johnson's scheme for a conven- 
tion empowered to settle this difficulty, never found itself legislating on 
loftier grounds. But it was a time when a little foolish talk, taking the 
form of unnecessary praise of things English, offended men, some of 
whose children have since become Anglo-maniacs, and it took the gen- 
ius of Motley, the historian, and the calm statesmanship of Hamilton 
Fish, to properly renew negotiations which had thus been broken off. 
Gladstone's magnanimity and honorableconduct in this affair, of course, 
offended both the upper classes and the rabble on the streets of London, 
who forgot the humiliation and sufferings of the United States, in a time 
of grave peril, at the hands of the five privateers which roamed the seas, 
capturing more than three score of our vessels, and committing out- 
rages under the British flag, even after the British Government had 
been warned by the representative of America. For twenty-three 
months, at the crucial moment in the life of the American Republic, 

265 



266 GLADSTONE: A BIOGRAPHICAL STUDY. 

England had permitted the nefarious and outrageous pursuit of our 
vessels by her own. President Grant's stern will, demanding a settle- 
ment of the question, was now allied with Gladstone's equally indomita- 
ble refusal to be moved from a course of justice by British criticism. 
Nothing could have been more certain than that Gladstone's popularity 
at home was to pass from him rapidly when England was made to admit 
that the devastation caused by her blockade runners and piratical ships 
was to be regretted. As the Board of Arbitration sat at Geneva, it was 
entirely impossible for Gladstone and the most eloquent and sincere 
lovers of peace to get England to perceive that a majestic era had been 
entered, in which the victories of peace and arbitration should at least 
equal those of bloody contention and strife. It was nothing whatever 
to Gladstone's foes that he had avoided w"ar with America, and it was 
of still less consideration to them that he had done right. The confer- 
ence at Geneva agreed that it should be governed by such rules of inter- 
national duty as must always be recognized as marking a new age in 
international politics. Fifteen millions of money and interest came from 
England to her wronged daughter over sea. Nearly a decade after- 
wards, Gladstone had an opportunity in the House of Commons to make 
reference to this subject. A resolution had been moved demanding that 
the British Government urge on all the Great Powers "a simultaneous 
reduction of armaments." Among other things Gladstone said this: 

"There is a third way, however^ in which I think it is in the power 
of the Government to qualify itself for becoming a missionary for those 
beneficial purposes which are contemplated by my honorable friend — that 
is, by showing their disposition, when they are themselves engaged in 
controversy, to adopt these amicable and pacific means of escape from 
their disputes, rather than to resort to war. Need I assure my honorable 
friend and my right honorable friend behind me (Mr. Baxter) that the 
dispositions which led us to become parties to the arbitration on the 
Alabama case are still with us the same as ever; that we are not discour- 
aged; that we are not damped in the exercise of these feehngs by the 
fact that we were amerced, and severely amerced, by the sentence of the 
international trib.unal; and that, although we may think the sentence was 
harsh in its extent and unjust in its basis, we regard the fine imposed on 



THE "ALABAMA CLAIMS." 267 

this country as dust in the balance compared with the moral value of the 
example set when these two great nations of England and America, which 
are among the most fiery and the most jealous in the world with regard to 
anything that touches national honor, went in peace and concord before 
a judicial tribunal to dispose of these painful dififerences, rather than 
resort to the arbitrament of the sword." 

Even Tennyson remonstrated with Gladstone and his desk was 
piled high with letters against "paying the money to the Yankees." 
Peace herself might have used Doyle's words, and not in vain : 

"One of a long-oppressed insulted crew, 
At lengthy dear Gladstone, I appeal to you; 
I do not mean the warrior of the State, 
Clothed in bright armour at the temple's gate. 
Set in front of battle, to uphold 
The truth that streams in glory from of old; 
To praise thy bearing in that arduous fight, 
Proud friends and unresentful foes unite. 
And the hushed spirits of the future see 
Even now, a lord of humankind in thee." 

Now was an excellent opportunity afforded those persons who had 
watched intelligently the development of Mr. Gladstone's conduct with 
reference to religious affairs, to accuse him of being secretly in league, 
if not, indeed, a member of, the Roman Church. He had looked kindly 
toward Ireland and had undertaken the onerous task of curing her 
chronic ills. A certain Mr. Whalley, who was also a member of Parlia- 
ment, drew him into a correspondence which is now ludicrous for the 
very seriousness with which it was conducted, the upshot of which was 
that Gladstone convinced England that he had met w'ith no change in 
his faith. The cry of "Home Rule for Ireland" w^as making itself heard 
everywhere, and that Gladstone w^as not ignorant of the difficulties any 
reforming statesman would have on his hands in trying to help the 
Irish people, is made evident by an address he made on receiving the 
freedom of the city of Aberdeen. He showed what he and others had 
tried to do for Ireland, and he then contended that Wales and Scotland 



268 GLADSTONE: A BIOGRAPHICAL STUDY. 

were much more favorably placed than Ireland for demanding and 
wisely using the gift of Home Rule. 

That Gladstone himself had not grown to his full height as a re- 
former of abuses even in Ireland, was made evident by what was con- 
tained in the question he asked at that time: 

"Can any sensible man, can any rational man, suppose that at this 
time of day, in this rational condition of the world, we are going to 
disintegrate the great capital institutions of this country for the pur- 
pose of making ourselves ridiculous in the sight of all mankind, and 
crippling any power we possess for bestowing benefits, through legis- 
lation, on the country to which we belong?" 

The Treaty negotiated by Mr. Cobden between France and Eng- 
land was now about to expire, and Gladstone was deeply interested 
in what England wished to do with reference to the maintenance of 
what had recently been a warm friendship. He was all the more inter- 
ested, because he was touched by the pathetic condition of France 
laden with unparalleled debt and stricken to the heart at the loss of 
territory. No act of his Administration is grander than that contin- 
uous exercise of intelligence and will with which he brought England 
at last into just understanding with the humiliated nation across the 
Channel. 

Discontent on the part of the laboring populations, a state of war 
between labor and capital in England, especially the demand on the 
part of the toilers for shorter hours and larger wages, led to a con- 
sideration, upon his part, of the causes for this discontent and of possi- 
ble remedies to be suggested. Both the laboring classes and Mr. 
Gladstone missed the presence of John Bright at this time, who had 
fallen desperately; ill from overwork, and whose straightforwardness 
of character, coupled with his influence upon Mr. Gladstone, might 
have saved the latter from making two appointments — at least they 
were charged to him— which could not add to his popularity amongst 
the classes most anxious that privilege should not obtain over merit 
in the Government. Sir Robert Collier was lifted to a position by the 
use of a technicality, and this did not please the common people to 
whom Mr. Gladstone had to look for his staunchest friends. 



THE "ALABAMA CLAIMS." 269 

A vote of censure was moved in the House of Lords, but, for- 
tunately for Gladstone, it was rejected. In the other case, which was 
known as "the Ewelne scandal," a certain Mr. Harvey was made a 
member of the Oxford Convocation by Oxford itself, for the purpose 
of qualifying him for the Rectory of Ewelne. These appointments 
were unfortunate incidents in the career of the head of a Govern- 
ment attempting to maintain his influence over English Liberalism. 

Meantime he was preparing to get everybody who cared much for 
gin and beer in opposition to him. The trade in liquors had as much 
hold upon England and as much influence in her politics as ever that 
trade has had in America and that is much. Sir Wilfred Lawson, who 
was a man of genuine moral enthusiasm and persuasive speech, or- 
ganized an agitation whose end was to give England what we call in 
America "local option," with respect to the public sale of intoxicat- 
ing drinks of every kind. It was very certain that the war against 
drink in England had revealed the fact that there were many localities 
which wished to stop the traffic in intoxicating liquors altogether. 
The Bill contemplated an extra penalty for drunkenness, and it shut 
the doors of gin-shops and other drinking houses at hours when they 
had commonly been open. 

Gladstone had always seemed too pious and upright for the rabble 
to like him deeply. Besides this, he had appeared once to favor the 
upper classes in their vice, if vice this might be called. He had pro- 
posed legislation which allowed the people who could afford to go to 
certain houses to drink wine, and he failed to offer legislation which 
would permit anybody else to have his usual glass. Now these public- 
house keepers were against him, and the fact that the present measure 
made a wholesale attack upon all houses where drink could be ob- 
tained, led to the massing of the most reputable and the most abom- 
inable of the liquor dealers in a league against the Government. Here 
was the very rabble to which Disraeli could hand a phrase accepted 
by the upper classes in their parlors and drawing-rooms, passed from 
lip to lip by the people who constitute "society," and very soon the 
English people, neglecting to look upon the greatness of Gladstone's 
aims and the largeness of the results obtained in the direction of pop- 



270 



GLADSTONE: A BIOGRAPHICAL STUDY, 



ular freedom, looked abroad and concluded that there was no "spirited 
foreign policy," and that the "honor of England" was not being well 
looked after. 

Meantime Gladstone was delivering addresses on matters theolog- 
ical and literary; he had given to the reviews essays of astonishing 
vigor and calm consideration, and he was carrying on a large cor- 
respondence with men of every class upon subjects of the first im- 
portance to legislation. When he arose to speak at the beginning of 
his term of office as Prime Minister, England remembered that he had 
said in the campaign leading to his election, that there was a certain 
"Upas tree" which had cursed Ireland, and that one of the main 
branches of this tree was the system of public education in that coun- 
try. Concluding the speech he had said: 

"For the House, for us all, for the country, I ask what is to be the 
policy that is to follow the rejection of this bill? What is to be the policy 
adopted in Ireland? Perhaps the bill of my honorable friend, the member 
for Brighton, will find favor, which leaves the University of Dublin in the 
hands of Trinity College, and which, I presume, if passed, will only be 
the harbinger of an agitation fiercer than that which we are told would 
follow the passing of the present bill. It will still leave the Roman Catholic 
in this condition^ that he will be able to obtain a degree in Ireland without 
going either to the Queen's College, to which he objects, or placing him- 
self under examinations and a system of discipline managed and con- 
ducted by a Protestant board, — a board composed of eight gentlemen, 
of whom six are clergymen of the Disestablished Church of Ireland. The 
other alternative will be the adopting for Ireland of a new set of principles 
which Parliament had repudiated in Ireland and has disclaimed for Great 
Britain, not only treating the Roman Catholic majority in Ireland as being 
the Irish nation, but likewise adopting for the Irish nation the principles 
which we have ourselves overthrown, even within the limits of our own 
generation. I know not with what satisfaction we can look forward to 
these prospects. It is dangerous to tamper with objects of this kind. We 
have presented to you our plan, for which we are responsible. We are 
not afraid, I am not afraid, of the charge of my right honorable friend 
that we have served the priests. (Mr. Horsman: "I did not say so.") I 
am glad to hear it. I am ready to serve the priest or any other man as far 
as justice dictates. I am not ready to go an inch further for them or for any 
other man; and if the labors of 1869 and 1870 are to be forgotten in Ire- 



THE "ALABAMA CLAIMS." 271 

land — if where we have earnestly sought and toiled for peace we find only 
contention — if our tenders of relief are thrust aside with scorn — let us 
still remember that there is a voice which is not heard in the crackling 
of the fire, or in the roaring of the whirlwind or the storm, but which will 
and must be heard when they have passed away, — the still, small voice of 
justice. To mete out justice in Ireland, according to the best view that 
with human infirmity we could form, has been the work, — I will almost 
say the sacred work — of this Parliament. Having put our hand to the 
plow let us not turn back. Let not what we think the fault or perverse- 
ness of those whom we are attempting to assist have the slightest efifect in 
turning us even by a hair's breadth from the path on which we have 
entered. As we have begun, so let us persevere even to the end, and with 
firm and resolute hand let us efface from the law and the practice of the 
country the last, — for I believe it is the last — of the religious and social 
grievances of Ireland." 

The year 1873 had come, and Gladstone's scheme for the settle- 
ment of this most annoying and complex question w^as offered. It 
was his aim to unify and pacify the antagonistic desires of the Romish 
and Protestant populations, and to so adjust things that there should 
be a University so conceived and conducted that the convictions of 
neither party would be seriously injured. Surely he might well appeal 
to the consciousness of civilization, and ask if there could be a higher 
or nobler task attempted than thus to nourish and enlarge human in- 
telligence and at the same time to protect the consciences of men. 
Irish Protestantism again stood forth in opposition. Roman Catholi- 
cism uttered its denunciations. The Irish Protestants wanted to retain 
their University, which had stood so long as their safeguard, and the 
bishops of the Church of Rome were not satisfied with what they were 
to obtain in exchange for what they were to give up. A short time 
before, Mr. Gladstone had made his appeal to the people, and in that 
turbulent auditory — as large an audience as he ever had addressed, 
even in the open air — at Blackheath, where he wrestled for hours with 
a mob hooting at the first, then cheering, then groaning, then storm- 
ing with approving applause, then howling wath derision, he had dis- 
cerned the attitude of the people of Greenwich toward himself, his 
methods, and perhaps his political ideal. At last, on that chilly Octo- 



272 GLADSTONE: A BIOGRAPHICAL STUDY. 

ber day, he had conquered the audience, and he came back home feeling 
that the same cause in its general aspects advocated with the same 
resolution, argument and courage, would succeed elsewhere. 

But now Disraeli unsheathed his sharpest sword, and he was more 
than ordinarily brilliant in his sarcasm when he saw that a large num- 
ber of the Liberal party were arrayed in opposition to Gladstone, and 
that Gladstone's former friends, the Irish members, utterly forgetful of 
every reason for loyalty to him, were shouting and voting against him. 
Never was Gladstone more athletic and resourceful in debate than on 
that night in March, 1873. He was badgered on all sides and taunted 
by those who had been closely attached to him on other measures, and 
he was mercilessly attacked by those whose habit it was to condemn 
unsparingly his statesmanship. Everything that he had touched in 
the last three years was labeled that night as a failure or a curse for 
England. 

On January 9th, the Emperor Napoleon had died, and England 
had manifested a warm feeling of sympathy for the Empress and for 
France, but now the Treaty of Paris was heralded as a victory for 
Russia with English interests abandoned, while the rise of Republican 
France made the haters of Republicanism in England more violent 
than ever against everything and anything in Gladstone's career and 
conduct which looked toward "the Americanization of the British 
Isles." 

It is hard to say where things would have gone, even before this, 
if the motion made by Sir Charles Dilke in the House of Commons a 
year before, in which that lively statesman proposed to inquire as to 
how the allowances and income of the royal family were expended, 
had accomplished its purpose. As we all remember, the Prince of 
Wales became ill, and Mr. Gladstone's reply to Sir Charles Dilke, in 
which he vehemently demonstrated what no one has ever doubted, — 
his attachment to the Queen and her family, and even to the ancient 
institution of monarchy itself, — brought to him the gratitude and 
admiration of a large section of people who had begun to stray away 
from him and who had foolishly joined in the old cry, that Gladstone 
cared nothing for English institutions and would willingly see the 




o 



THE "ALABAMA CLAIMS." 273 

whole machinery go to pieces. Here, however, in the debate on this 
measure for the settlement of educational affairs in Ireland, Gladstone 
was to find that nothing cjould save the day. The unenfranchised 
classes in the rural districts were heard from in a singular way, for they 
had not gotten over their wrath at being left out of the functions and 
responsibility of government by the last Reform Bill. But here the 
glittering steel of Disraeli was backed by powers much more demon- 
strative and serious than this. He also had 'felt the pulse of the coun- 
try, and while he was feeling the patient's pulse, he had got him on 
his feet, and in many places throughout the realm he had organized 
an opposition to Gladstone and his plans which now was resistless. 
He made England laugh as he spoke of his rivals under Gladstone as 
"a range of extinct volcanoes." M^ter of that kind of rhetoric which 
is most happy in opposition, the supreme incarnation of a gravity upon 
which his own somewhat gaudy ornaments of speech appeared to be 
gems indeed, with everything to gain and with nothing to lose, play- 
ing to the classes most privileged on the one hand and to the classes 
most hopeless of advancement on the other, he enforced his criticisms 
with such strength and certainty of stroke, that there was nothing 
now but defeat for Gladstone. 

Disraeli was soon sent for by the Queen, but, having a minority *in 
the House of Commons, Disraeli declined and Mr. Gladstone was 
persuaded to remain in office. 

Now, having been wearied with arduous labors and feeling a de- 
cline in his health, yet loyal enough to his Queen to retain office under 
such embarrassing circumstances, he saw Mr. Fawcett's measure for 
dealing with the educational question in Ireland carried, and Mr. 
Disraeli faltering as to whether he dared go to the country and to 
squarely make his appeal on the Irish University question. The cir- 
cumstances were such that neither Gladstone nor Disraeli w'anted 
offfce. The Fall Elections declared against the Liberal party. Mr, 
Lowe, one of whose blunders we have recorded, was succeeded by 
Gladstone himself as Chancellor of the Exchequer in his own Cabinet. 
At length Mr. Gladstone resolved to appeal to the people. He dis- 
solved Parliament. In an address marvelous even for Gladstone, he 
18 



274 GLADSTONE: A BIOGRAPHICAL STUDY. 

appealed to his constituents, but the address was too long for the 
people to read. Gladstone's colleagues opposed his action, and, this 
fact being known, there was a great popular disapproval of his speedy- 
resolve, and it was easy for his foes to make ignorance and lawlessness 
agree that he had proved, in any event, that he was not a statesman. 
The magnanimity, the trust he showed in people themselves, the 
sublime carelessness with which he did the right — all of these now were 
made evident. The fight before the constituencies was exciting, tur- 
bulent and long continued. Every malcontent in ^England, every 
vested interest, every privileged class, every indolent aristocrat, every 
mob-loving democrat, — the whole mass of dullness and mediocrity, 
ever strong, — rose against the one man who in recent times, had led 
England to do a sublime thing. John Bull had been overstrained 
by the earnest Gladstone. He was weary of the strenuousness and 
the heroism of this open-eyed and progressive spirit. Men forgot that 
he had brought to a successful close the Ashantee war, of the very 
existence of which England ought to have been ashamed. They 
passed over the fact that he had dealt wisely and humanely with the 
famine in Bengal, and the countrymen who had been offended be- 
cause they had not been able to get into step with an ever advancing 
statesmanship which had so often refused to honor their petty criti- 
cism, rejoiced in the downfall of one of the most earnest and self- 
sacrificing champions of constitutional government who ever lived. 

Greenwich placed him second on her poll, for the first man re- 
turned was an inconsequential distiller. 

If ever Gladstone's enthusiasm took possession of his whole life, 
intellectually and physically, it was discerned in the course of that 
unmatched progress toward Republicanism to which he urged, but 
could not lead, his party, between 1870 and 1874. So thoroughly 
did he seem to believe in the capability of John Bull to receive re- 
generating influences that when, in 1874, after thirty years of absence, 
the Conservatives swept into power, his confidence in principles stood 
firm, even though his vision of the fact stunned him. For these years 
Gladstone had been running a race with himself in proposing to 
the English people measure after measure calculated to place 



THE "ALABAMA CLAIMS." 275 

the Government of Great Britain upon the broadest human foun- 
dation, and make her the leader of the world's civilization. As has 
been well said, every one of his measures was a capital piece of legis- 
lation, and to have carried any one of them through would have made 
a man of ordinary genius sure of immortal praise. He had disestab- 
lished and disendowed the Irish Church; he had given to the realm 
the Irish Land Act, in which reside the forces of statesmanship which 
shall finally create a truly united kingdom ; he had reformed the abuses 
of the Army; he had garrisoned and guaranteed the safety and sacred- 
ness of the ballot; he had given England a scheme of education which 
meant the defeat of popular ignorance throughout the entire realm, 
and, as we have said, because he had overstrained the capacity of the 
English people to accept and apply the most important political ideas 
of modern times, his Government was overthrown by the Licensed 
Victualers, and the publicans routed an administration the most 
mighty since the days of the younger Pitt. The slight promise of 
legislation contained in the speech from the Thrgne when Parliament 
was opened in 1874, indicated how willing everybody was for a rest. 
It was the hour for well-groomed people to poke coarse fun at a 
generous and prophetic enthusiast. Even the "Saturday Review" 
could say: 

"Mr. Gladstone, in a speech delivered to his Greenwich constituents, 
extemporized in his well-known fashion a general proposition that Gov- 
ernments always decline in popularity after three years of office. If it 
had suited his purpose, he might have accounted for the result which he 
acknowledged without resorting to arbitrary theories." 

And that caustic sheet added: 

"It has been said that soldiers prefer a leader in battle who invites 
them to come on to one who merely orders them to go on. Mr. Gladstone 
in a great Parliamentary contest gives neither direction, but like one of 
his favorite Homeric heroes, he prefers to fight alone in front of his army." 

This is not fair to Gladstone. His faith in ideals was sublime. He 
was trying to bring his army up to the color-bearer; he did not and 
would not take the flag back to the halting army. 



CHAPTER XXXI. 

SEEKING REST AND FINDING NONE. 

Now came the opportunity for Gladstone to insist that he had 
earned the right to rest, after a long series of years devoted to public 
business and to the proclamation of the principles of Anglo-Saxon 
freedom. His health was certainly affected, and although he was only 
sixty-four years of age, he desired the companionship of his books, 
the quiet of his home, opportunity for travel, and, above all, the 
wide audience of the world which he might instruct and inspire with 
his pen. He felt himself that he had carried England to a point where 
she might see the promised land of a larger political life, and just at 
that moment England had expressed her desire to return to the flesh- 
pots of Egypt. On the 12th of March he sent a letter to Lord Gran- 
ville containing these words: 

"For a variety of reasons personal to myself, I could not contemplate 
any unlimited extension of active political service; and I am anxious that 
it should be clearly understood by those friends with whom I have acted 
in the direction of affairs, that at my age I must reserve my entire freedom 
to divest myself of all the responsibilities of leadership at no distant time. 
The need of rest will prevent me from giving more than occasional at- 
tendance in the House of Commons during the present session. 

"I should be desirous, shortly before the commencement of the Ses- 
sion of 1875, to consider whether there would be advantage in my placing 
my services for a time at the disposal of the Liberal party, or whether 
I should then claim exemption from the duties I have hitherto discharged. 
If, however, there should be reasonable ground for believing that, instead 
of the course which I have sketched, it would be preferable, in view of 
the party generally^ for me to assume at once the place of an independent 
member, I should willingly adopt the latter alternative. But I shall retain 
all that desire I have hitherto felt for the welfare of the party, and if the 
gentlemen composing it should think fit either to choose a leader or make 
provision ad interim, with a view to the convenience of the present year, 

276 



SEEKING REST AND FINDING NONE. 277 

the person designated would, of course, command from me any assistance 
which he might find occasion to seek, and which it might be in my power 
to render." 

The Liberal party arose as one man, and insisted that their Moses 
had led them forth too far from Egypt for them to return, and now 
were they to be left to die so far this side of Canaan? 

While the discussion was going on, the Public Worship Regula- 
tion Bill, which was aimed at the abolition of Ritualism in the Church 
of England, was introduced by Archbishop Tait. The old war horse, 
Gladstone, heard the bugle and the sounds of battle. He had spoken 
on the subject of Ritualism elsewhere, urging that ritual had its value 
but ritual must not be mistaken for holiness. 

The whole House favored the Bill. It passed, as did the Ecclesias- 
tical Titles Bill of Lord John Russell many years before, which was 
tenderly repealed by Gladstone twenty years after its passage, dur- 
ing which twenty years it had been a dead letter in the statute-books 
of England. And this Bill, which was read the second time in the 
House of Commons, and was so manifestly popular that Gladstone 
withdrew his resolutions against it, was to furnish another example of 
the same sort. Meantime, in the Committee, Mr. Gladstone came into- 
hottest contention with the man who had been his Solicitor-General 
a year before, Sir William Harcourt, and with two or three strokes of 
his sword, he laid Sir William low, after the latter had poured forth 
the following intemperate words with reference to both Disraeli and 
Gladstone: 

"We have a leader of this House who is proud of the House of Com- 
mons, and of whom the House of Commons is proud. Well may the 
Prime Minister be proud of the House of Commons, for it was the scene 
of his early triumphs, and it is still the arena of his later and well-earned 

glory We may well leave the vindication of the reputation 

of this famous assembly to one who will well know how to defend its 
credit and its dignity against the ill-advised railing of a rash and rancorous 
tongue." 

The ill-advised Sir William had ventured to measure swords with 
Gladstone on matters of ecclesiastical jurisprudence and polity. 



2/8 GLADSTONE: A BIOGRAPHICAL STUDY. 

Disraeli proposed to go on with a Cabinet of twelve. He had 
already perceived the capabilities and relied upon the industry of Lord 
Salisbury, who was now in the Indian department, and Lord Cairns, 
with whom also he had been closely associated in debate and in the 
conducting of public business, was created Lord Chancellor, and every- 
body whom Gladstone had ever offended by his brilliancy was made 
peaceful and acquiescent with the appointment of Lord Derby as For- 
eign Secretary. It is true that Salisbury and Disraeli had quarreled 
years before, but now the former was evidently in training for a position 
which Disraeli would some day leave to him. Mr. Gathorne Hardy, 
who now represented Oxford as Gladstone did not represent her, was 
given charge of military affairs, and Mr. Gladstone's former private 
secretary, who was now Sir Stafford Northcote, and whose training 
under Gladstone so well fitted him for the position, was made Chan- 
cellor of the Exchequer. 

Here is an interesting page from the Life and Letters of Dean 
Stanley: 

"Stanley was invited to meet the Czar at luncheon at Marlborough 
House, Lord Beaconsfield, who had lately become Prime Minister, sat 
in a post of honor^ whilst Mr. Gladstone, whose fall was still recent, and 
who had lately forsworn public life, sat, in a less prominent place, near 
the Dean. When the company rose to leave the luncheon room, Mr. 
Disraeli, as he then was, came down from his lofty position, and passed in 
front of the place where Stanley and Mr. Gladstone were standing. He 
turned to his political rival, and said, in allusion, to the latter's absence 
from Parliament^ with a mixture of comedy and tragedy expressed on his 
countenance : 

" 'You must come back to us; indeed, we cannot possibly do without 
you.' Mr. Gladstone, with more than usual severity, answered, 'There 
are things possible, and there are things impossible; what you ask me to 
do is one of the things that are impossible.' Upon this Disraeli turned 
to me, as the nearest representative of the public present, and said, 'You 
see what it is — the wrath, the inexorable wrath of Achilles.' " 

Mr. Gladstone had indeed come back and he had been compli- 
mented by Mr. Disraeli upon his re-appearance in the House, when the 
former entered into the debate on the Church Patronage Bill, and 



SEEKING REST AND FINDING NONE. 279 

it really seemed as though the patronage of his rival was tempered 
by kindly friendship. Sir William Harcourt's somewhat extemporan- 
eous erudition on Church affairs received serious shocks when Glad- 
stone opposed the Bill, whose aim was to upset the right of veto on 
the part of a bishop, and to give to the archbishop in one diocese the 
power to begin suit in another. Salisbui-y and Disraeli were making 
things interesting as they crossed their slender and brilliant blades, 
and the people of England were resting from the lofty-mindedness of 
Gladstone, while he looked on, beholding the absurd pretentiousness 
and utter uselessness of a measure which was intended to put down 
Ritualism. The Ritualists gathered around Gladstone and regarded 
him as their savior and friend, though his argument amounted to show- 
ing that they had proposed too much of what he thought a good thing. 
Whenever Sir William Harcourt attempted to be learned on ecclesi- 
astical matters, he met the energetic Gladstone, and his learning dis- 
solved into thin air. Gladstone's manner was irresistible, as at one 
time he spoke of Sir William in the following words: 

"I confess, fairly, I greatly admire the manner in which he has used 
his time since Friday night. On Friday night, as he says, he was taken by 
surprise. The lawyer was taken by surprise, and so was the professor of 
law in the University of Cambridge; the lawyer was taken by surprise, 
and, in consequence, he had nothing to deliver to the House except a 
series of propositions on which I will not comment. I greatly respect 
the order and the spirit of the order of the House which renders it irregu- 
lar, as, in my opinion, it is highly inconvenient, especially when there 
is no practical issue, to revive the details and particulars of a former 
debate. Finding that he has delivered to the House most extraordi- 
nary propositions of law and history that will not bear a moment's ex- 
amination, my honorable and learned friend has had the opportunity 
of spending four or five days in better informing himself upon the sub- 
ject, and he is in a position to come down to this House, and for an 
hour and a half to display and develop the erudition he has thus rapidly 
and cleverly acquired. Human nature could not possibly resist such a 
temptation, and my honorable and learned friend has succumbed to it 
on this occasion." 

It was now a delight for Mr. Gladstone to use something Hke 



28o GLADSTONE: A BIOGRAPHICAL STUDY. 

leisure in contributing to the reviews his articles on ecclesiastical, lit- 
erary, and especially theological subjects. 

Again he tried, in the winter of 1875, to get the Liberal party 
to release him from leadership. But it was impossible to find another 
to bend the bow of Ulysses. With a sublime carelessness as to the 
matters usually affecting what Mr. Gladstone has been termed, — a 
shrewd politician, — he created a furore among the Roman Catholics 
in his controversies with regard to the Church of England and the 
Church of Rome. It was gravely insisted by those who could not un- 
derstand Gladstone, that he had grown tired of the Irish cause, and 
was willing now to offend the whole body of Catholics wherever they 
lived. 

He had added to the tumult thus created, for now he published 
his famous pamphlet called "The Vatican Decrees in Their Bearing 
on Civil Allegiance." More than 100,000 copies of the pamphlet con- 
taining his vigorous treatment of this topic, were sold at once, and 
an army of controversialists arose to answer him. Manning and New- 
man drew their polished swords against him with characteristic force. 
No power of mind which he had shown in his handling of a financial 
Budget, or in his defense of a great political measure, forsook him in 
this debate. His friends insisted that he was digging more deeply his 
political grave with every stroke of his shovel, though they admitted 
that from a literary point of view the edge of the shovel gleamed like 
gold. His enemies, especially those who desired him to become as 
unpopular in Ireland as possible, were overjoyed at the fact that he 
was smiting the assumption of the Roman Catholic Church to rule 
in civil affairs hip and thigh, and rendering its position uneasy, and its 
communicants angry at him. He paid no attention whatever to the 
beseechings of his old colleagues, or to the vituperation, mixed with 
hilarity, on the part of his foes. With almost unwonted seriousness 
and inflexibility, he pursued his way serenely. He knew he was tread- 
ing a lofty ''path which the vulture's eye hath not seen." 



CHAPTER XXXII. 

GLADSTONE AND "THE MYSTERY MAN." 

When Gladstone was leading his Government on the subject of 
education in 1870, he met a most heated opposition on the part of 
the Roman Catholics, with whom, it began to be said in 1875, he 
was settling his account in his controversy with Cardinal Newman, 
and he confronted also the Nonconformists, who, it was hoped, had 
settled their account with Gladstone by helping to overthrow him in 
the General Election of 1874. To both of these opponents Gladstone 
had made reply when he said to the leader of the Nonconformists, Mr. 
Edward Miall: "We are the Government of the Queen, and those who 
have assumed the high responsibility of administering the affairs of 
this empire must endeavor to forget the parts in the whole, and must, 
in the great measures they introduce into the House, propose to them- 
selves no meaner or narrower object than the welfare of the nation 
at large." If these offended parties had expected to cling to Disraeli, 
he was ruthlessly to disappoint them. The very constituency at 
Greenwich, which had refused to support Gladstone, was now angered 
beyond expression at the behavior of him whom John Bright had 
called "the Mystery Man." Disraeli had not only shown himself care- 
less, if not indolent, as to any improvement in domestic afifairs, but 
he had whiled away his time and expended his energies in showy ap- 
pearances in political debate, out of whose tumult came nothing but 
vague and formless phantoms. Disraeli had laughingly said: "His- 
tory never repeats itself! She is the least original of all the IMuses, — 
a spun-out tautology." Now he was about to furnish a strange com- 
mentary on this remark. The Oriental elements in his blood never 
more truly exhibited themselves in his speech and demeanor than at 
this time. He strode on magnificently, gorgeous in his rhetorical ap- 
parel and confident in the strength of the overwhelming majority with 

281 



282 GLADSTONE: A BIOGRAPHICAL STUDY. 

which he accompHshed whatever pleased him. Gladstone's steel 
was resting in the sheath, while he was warring with his pen with the 
chief militants in the controversy in the realm of theology and Church 
policies. John Bright was laid aside by physical weakness, and the 
world was Disraeli's. His vast phrases, in which the word "imperial" 
shows forth abundantly, resounded over England, and a Jingo policy 
had taken possession of the hearts and ambitions of his followers. Yon- 
der in Egypt was the Suez Canal, the construction of which the British 
Government for a long time had antagonized. Now, however, that it 
had become a fact, and that the Khedive of Egypt was in financial 
straits, and nearly half of his holdings of the shares in the Canal, which 
amounted to nearly one-fourth of the total number of shares, was for 
sale, Disraeli bought them. 

Hardly a month had passed away when it w^as evident, in the spring 
of 1875, that Disraeli's mysterious expressions were meant to signify 
that somehow England had saved the world from another strife be- 
tween France and Germany. By the beginning of the year 1876 
Bismarck had shown the English people that the British magician had 
really nothing to do with such a possible event, for war existed as a 
probability only in his luxurious imagination. It was necessary for 
Disraeli to make some sort of show against this disappointment, and 
Lord Salisbury gave voice to the desire for a new sensation, and again 
mounted the old phrase of Disraeli, which he gave to the Electors of 
Buckinghamshire in his reply to Gladstone's address to the Electors 
of Greenwich two years before: "A little more energy in our foreign 
policy, and a little less in our domestic legislation." Disraeli said with 
reference to the Suez Canal operation: 

"I have always and do now recommend it (the purchase of the Canal 
shares) to the country as a political transaction, and one which I believe is 
calculated to strengthen the empire. That is the spirit in which it has 

been accepted by the country They are seasick of the 

'silver streak.' They want the empire to be maintained, to be strengthened; 
they will not be alarmed even if it be increased." 

The Dock Yards were made unusually active. Estimates for the 
Army and Navy were increased, and "the imperial instincts of the na- 



GLADSTONE AND "THE MYSTERY MAN." 283 

tion were tempted forward into unwonted display." Gladstone saw 
the darkness from the East and waited. He was not bewildered, 
though England was bedazzled. 

It seemed that the old days, when Civis Romanus Palmerston 
made every Englishman defiant of every other country on earth, 
had come again. Lord Derby, who never was a great speaker, but was 
regarded as, on the whole, the most sensible man in England, had wit 
enough to reduce a little toward its proper form the rhetoric of Dis- 
raeli with reference to England's policy and to prepare for the less 
torrid feeling of later days. James Anthony Froude, who often did, 
in writing alleged history, what Disraeli was doing in practicing poli- 
tics, was sent out on a South African enterprise, the Prince of Wales 
was sent as a visitor to India, the emotional author of "Lucille" was 
made Viceroy over that people. More was to follow. 

At the beginning of January, 1876, England looked upon the new 
peers which had recently been created. Mr. Gladstone had added forty 
peers in the course of six years to the Upper House, and Mr. Disraeli 
had created twenty-four in half the time, slightly outdoing Mr. Glad- 
stone, and taking a good deal of effectiveness out of the charge against 
the latter that he had strengthened his party in the Upper House in 
this way. Disraeli's mind, turning naturally to dukes, was not sat- 
isfied with less than three. When Disraeli came to handle the ques- 
tion of Pitt's peerages, he said: "He created a plebeian aristocracy. 
He made peers of second-rate squires and fat graziers. He caught 
them in the alleys of Lombard Street and clutched them in the count- 
ing-houses of Cornhill." It was evident that Disraeli was likely to 
eclipse Pitt in his effort to be strong in the House of Lords, and he 
had the disadvantage of having neither a Wellington or a Nelson, as 
Pitt had, for these lofty positions. Yet, on the whole, they were a 
good lot of men, harmless enough for promotion, and Disraeli lost 
nothing by lifting them above their fellows. He was soon to be in 
their company. 

Perhaps nothing more thoroughly exemplified Mr. Disraeli's love 
of splendor, which fortunately had the effect of holding Gladstone's 
opulent fancy more soberly in check, than the former's proposal of 



284 GLADSTONE: A BIOGRAPHICAL STUDY. 

the Royal Titles Bill. Disraeli had fascinated even the footlights of 
the theater in which he was playing, by proposing to add to the august 
title of his sovereign an oriental and grandiose phrase, — "Empress of 
India." With what Bright described as "a mixture of pompousness 
and servility," Disraeli waved off annoying questions with reference 
to what the Government had in store and proceeded to prepare the 
country for this majestic designation. While all this charlatanism was 
going on, the Prime Minister had no ear for the cry which had already 
pierced the scholarly calm at Hawarden and found for broken hearts 
an inimitable and chivalrous champion. The contrast was complete 
as the news became more and more sadly true from the Balkans. 

Disraeli lost nothing by the fact that he was able to fairly crush 
Mr. Robert Lowe, who made another of his interesting blunders by 
asserting that the Queen had tried to induce two earlier administra- 
tions to add this title to her already august name. Lord Hartington, 
the somewhat heavy and always slow-going leader of the Liberal 
party, could not even apologize for the interesting mistake. 

And now the figure of Russia arose, dread and specter-like as 
ever, when she appeared before the mind of England. It was true 
that Turkey had proved reactionary and had refused every suggestion 
of progress. Insurrections had followed upon outrageous misgovern- 
ment, and while blood was shed freely, Turkey became more barbarous 
and cruel. There could be no question in the mind of England, 
however, because England's mind had a constitutional and chronic 
fear of the effect of Russia's ambition, that Russia now, having gone 
further into Asia with her territorial lines, meant to take advantage of 
the situation in Turkey and of the revolts which followed one another 
incessantly and build a new future for herself, doubtless on the ruins, of 
the Ottoman Government. In Herzegovina and Bosnia insurrections 
had broken out. The Government at Constantinople complained that 
the first insurrection had been aided by Russia and Montenegro, as well 
as, perhaps, by Austrians and Servians. Lord Derby was cautious and 
procrastinating, if not weak, and he did not opportunely answer the 
appeal made to the Government of England that it should urge 
Austria to refuse help. Finally the Austrian minister formulated a 



GLADSTONE AND "THE MYSTERY MAN." 285 

declaration that it was time for the Porte to interfere and compel 
Turkey to change her course. He was right in saying that Servia 
and Montenegro could no longer be resisted in their desire to take a 
hand in the insurrection. In this plan of Count Andrassy, Italy and 
France were ready to join, but Lord Derby was silent, until the Porte 
itself actually besought the English Government to unite with the 
others. 

By this time Turkey came to believe that England was on her 
side, and, although the note which England finally signed with the 
rest of the powers, was irritating, Turkey made some excellent prom- 
ises which were capable of being twisted into meaningless assertions 
by Oriental craft. A meeting of the Powers was proposed. The 
Berlin Memorandum came, and Turkey was told that unless these 
promises w^re speedily redeemed^ combined action on the part of 
the Powers might be expected. Again Lord Derby hesitated about 
joining in the Berlin Memorandum. England naturally believed that 
Russia was behind this whole enterprise, stirring up a religious war, if 
such a thing were possible, in order that she might seize more valu- 
able territory. Turkey took hope at this, even though her Sultan 
had outdazzled Disraeli's Orientalism when he was received in London, 
and had ended his career by taking his own life, after having been 
dethroned. 

At this moment there broke forth in Bulgaria a powerful insur- 
rection. It was a noble rebellion against intolerable tyranny. It was 
met by incredible violence, and hideous massacre reigned in the 
Balkans. Disraeli had flashed in a most spectacular manner, when 
he told Parliament that the English Government would have nothing 
to do with the Berlin Memorandum. Now stories came to London 
of unparalleled suffering and crime, led on by the Turkish Govern- 
ment against the Bulgarians, while the British fleet was said to be 
moving toward Besika Bay. The "spirited foreign policy" was certainly 
brilliant and bloody enough in its undoing. Hate of Russia, the 
stupid reiteration of the word "imperial" to England's bewildered 
mind, fascinated as it was for a moment by the glitter of Disraeli's 
rhetoric and promises, could not, however, stop the ear of humanity. 



286 GLADSTONE: A BIOGRAPHICAL STUDY. 

The Daily News, which was a Liberal organ, and, therefore, was not to 
be regarded, much less believed, by a Tory such as Mr. Disraeli, poured 
upon the Government information which the Government would not 
heed, but which revealed a chapter of atrocities unparalleled in the 
history of the race. Never was there an hour when civilization, shud- 
dering at horrible and wholesale murders, bound by an ambitious and 
apparently heartless Government, so needed a heroic hand to loose 
her that she might deal justly with insensate barbarism. 



CHAPTER XXXIII. 

THE KNIGHT ERRANT. 

Sitting in Hawarden Castle and poring over the Iliad of Homer 
or the Analogy of Bishop Butler, or felling great oaks in Hawarden 
Forest, or reading the lessons, as was his custom, in the morning 
service at the parish church, entertaining distinguished artists, illus- 
trious poets, or eminent theologians, the stalwart spirit of Gladstone 
could not be satisfied or acquiescent. He heard the cry of beleaguered 
and outraged humanity, and while the words of Disraeli describing the 
reports of these atrocities as "cof¥ee-house babble" were still defiling 
the air of St. Stephens, and while London was reading with emo- 
tions of horror the report of the English Consul confirming previous 
statements as to the shameless crimes of the Bashi-Bazouks, Gladstone 
suddenly made his appearance in the House of Commons. An impe- 
rialism of genius utterly unlike that of Disraeli's rhetoric, a profound 
faith in justice, triumphantly glowing in his face, and a sublime pas- 
sion for righteousness beamingfrom those deep-lit eyes, took possession 
of the House, while a stream of fiery eloquence poured from his 
agitated soul. Every facility which his eloquent tongue and scarcely 
less eloquent pen might employ was used in the unparalleled crusade. 
A Saint Bernard spoke again. He organized and led against the 
policy which now stood revealed in all its satanic features, as the 
merciless light of Gladstone's mind and conscience played upon it. 
He was called sentimental, and he was said to be preaching "Sunday- 
school politics." Once on a time an excellent Bishop had been ex- 
pected to address, on an important occasion, a distinguished body 
of students at King's College, but failed to appear; Mr. Gladstone 
supplied for him, as we would say, and proved himself a preacher 
indeed who might have rivaled Jeremy Taylor or Canon Liddon. 
Now, however, Gladstone's eloquence was like that of Savonorola of 

287 



288 GLADSTONE: A BIOGRAPHICAL STUDY. 

Florence in which the crown of Lorenzo de Medici was consumed. 
Speech followed speech, monster meetings succeeded an address of 
denunciation in the House of Commons, and the realm trembled under 
the spell of his genius. He was called "the friend of Russia," which 
has always been enough, in England, to condemn an archangel. In 
the midst of his crusade he had talked intemperately, some of his 
friends said, and many were led to believe that he wanted the Turks, 
men, women and children, thrown bodily out of Europe. A reaction 
sprung up. Disraeli attitudinized as the only friend of England's 
foreign or domestic interests. He stood in the House of Commons 
one day, directing his stinging arrows at Gladstone the Crusader, and 
poured a torrent of scorn and ridicule upon the opponents of his own 
Government. Next day he was a member of the House of Lords, 
and had entered a new era in his history as the Earl of Beaconsneld. 

Still, however, Gladstone's appeal was echoed and re-echoed 
throughout the realm. He said: 

"I am far from supposing — I am not such a dreamer as to suppose that 
Russia, more than- any other country, is exempt from selfishness and ambi- 
tion. But she has also within her, like other countries, the pulse of 
humanity, and, for my own part, I believe it is the pulse of humanity which 
is now throbbing almost ungovernably in her people. Upon the concord 
and hearty co-operation — not upon a mere hollow truce between England 
and Russia, but upon their concord and hearty, cordial co-operation — 
depend a good settlement of this question. Their power is immense. 
The power of Russia by land for acting upon these countries as against 
Turkey is perfectly resistless; the power of England by sea is scarcely 
less important at this moment. For I ask you what would be the condi- 
tion of the Turkish armies if the British Admiral now in Besika Bay were 
to inform the Government of Constantinople that from that hour, until 
atonement had been made — until punishment had descended, until justice 
had been vindicated — not a man, nor a ship, nor a boat should cross the 
waters of the Bosphorus, or the cloudy Euxine, or the bright TEgean, to 
carry aid to the Turkish troops? 

"Let us insist that our Government, which has been working in one 
direction, shall work in the other, and shall apply all its vigor to concur 
with the other States of Europe in obtaining the extinction of the Turkish 
executive power in Bulgaria. Let the Turks now carry away their abuses 




.^uto^.jH^,«ifc^^i- lii'iiiiiifiiiii^Mtfftiili'iiitrtf'ri 



GLADSTONE AND LI HUNG CHANG 




CATHERINE GLADSTONE 



THE KNIGHT ERRANT. 289 

in the only possible manner — namely, by carrying off themselves. Their 
Zaptiehs and their Mudirs, their Bimbashis and their Yuzbachis, their 
Kaimakams and their Pashas — one and all, bag and baggage, shall, I 
hope, clear out from the province they have desolated and profaned. 
. . . If it be allowable that the executive power of Turkey should 
renew at this great crisis, by permission or authority of Europe, the 
charter of its existence in Bulgaria, then there is not on record since 
the beginning of political society a protest that man has lodged against 
intolerable misgovernment, or a stroke he has dealt at loathsome tyranny, 
that ought not henceforward to be branded as a crime." 

And England more clearly understood him. Gladstone was never 
more patriotic or effective. He had doubtless saved England from 
going into war and placing herself on the wrong side of the contest. 
It W'HS a disheartening day, however, in' the life of the great statesman, 
when even Disraeli could be applauded as he spoke of the "sinister 
ends" which the followers of Gladstone and their chief were seeking 
to accomplish, and stigmatized their conduct as "worse than the Bul- 
garian atrocities." It was impossible for Gladstone to safely appear 
on the streets of London. Mr. Lucy's famous "Diary of Two Par- 
liaments" furnishes but one of the many pages written by publicists 
and historians perpetuating the memory of those militant days: 

"Scene, division lobby of the House of Commons; date, 12th April, 
1878; time, 9:20 p. m. Gladstone is walking along the lobby, having 
recorded his vote against a hasty proposal to conduct the business of 
Parliament in secret. The Conservative majority in the other lobby 
observe him through the glass door and suddenly set up a yell of execra- 
tion which could scarcely be more violent if the murderer of Lord Leitrim, 
flying for sanctuary to Westminster, were discovered skulking in the 
lobby. The crowd increases till it reaches the proportions of forty or 
fifty English gentlemen, all well educated, many of good birth who, with 
hand held to mouth to make the sound shriller, howl and groan, while 
some even shake their fists. Gladstone, startled at the cry, looks up and 
sees the crowd. He pauses a moment, and then, advancing close up 
to the glass door, calmly surveys the yelling mob. On the one side 
the slight figure drawn to its full height, and the pale, stern face stead- 
fastly turned towards the crowd. On the other the jeering, mocking, ges- 
ticulating mob. Between them the glass door and the infinite space 
that separates a statesman from the partisan." 

19 



290 GLADSTONE: A BIOGRAPHICAL STUDY. 

The windows of Gladstone's house were broken; he received threats 
of personal violence, and often found himself under the necessity of 
seeking police protection; but during it all there walked by his side, 
in beautiful majesty, his faithful wife. Meantime, in the presence of 
a world slowly turning to the side of humanity and justice, Disraeli 
and Gladstone were grapphng in debate. The distance from the 
House of Commons to the House of Lords could not make peace 
between them. It was the fiercest controversy in which these political 
duelists had ever been involved, and it furnished England and civiliza- 
tion a lesson never to be unlearned. 

Lord Salisbury, however, was sent to Constantinople to demand 
that an end be put to the atrocities, while Gladstone was still rousing 
England. He was in sight of victory. Gladstone's review article on 
Montenegro, published in 1877, will always remain like a mirror in 
which the face of the author himself may be seen and studied. His 
unsurpassed zeal for down-trodden men and women furnished many 
witnesses to itself in that long controversy. Every element of his 
physical strength, and every energy of his indignant soul, every 
accomplishment of his fertile mind, every dearest friendship — he 
consecrated all to this cause. In the autumn of November, he 
visited Ireland. This visit was to prove of the utmost import- 
ance to him and to the Irish people in a short period. He came 
closer to the Irish problem than ever before, and his visit, while very 
enjoyable, accomplished something more than to prove to him the 
warmheartedness of the Irish people. It gave him an insight into 
some of the difficulties which finally came to him from that population, 
in his attempted solution of the problem years afterward. He said, 
speaking in Dublin: 

"I could not describe the tumult almost of thought and emotion that 
a visit to Ireland brought into my mind. I saw from its antiquities, which 
formerly I knew the existence of only in the abstract, how remarkable was 
the position which Ireland occupied in those days, and I may say in 
those centuries, when she had almost a monopoly of learning and piety, 
and when she alone held up the truths of civilization, of true, Christian 
civilization, in Northern and Western Europe. They made a very deep 



THE KNIGHT ERRANT. 291 

impression on me, and they enabled me the better to understand the 
intense feeling with which the Irishman loves his country." 

However, this was not Ireland's time for Gladstone's impassioned 
oratory. It is doubtful if ever her cause so commanded a certain kind 
of eloquence as the state of affairs in the East drew from the expe- 
rienced speaker. Certainly Gladstone's grandest days as an orator 
were these. A certain Mr. Chaplin sought to vex him, if not com- 
pel him to cease, before a volley of questions. They were such as 
only roused Gladstone to a hotter onset. He thus disposed of the 
inconsequential Chaplin who had been stupid enough to intimate 
that Gladstone had not been honorable in meeting his antagonists. 
Said the high-spirited Gladstone: 

"He says, sir, that I have been an inflammatory agitator, and that, 
as soon as I have got into this House, I have no disposition to chant 
in the same key. But before these debates are over — before this question 
is settled — the hon. gentleman will know more about my opinions than 
he knows at present, or is likely to know to-night. I am not about to reveal 
now to the hon. gentleman the secrets of a mind so inferior to his own. 
I am not so young as to think that his obliging inquiries supply me with 
the opportunities most advantageous to the public interest for the laying 
out of the plan of a campaign. By the time the hon. member is as old 
as I am, if he comes in his turn to be accused of cowardice by a man 
of the next generation to himself, he probably may find it convenient 
to refer to the reply I am now making, and to make it a model, or, at 
all events, to take from it hints and suggestions, with which to dispose 
of the antagonist that may then rise against him. 

"I will tell the hon. gentleman," added Mr. Gladstone, "something 
in answer to his questions, and it is that I will tell him nothing at all. 
I will take my own counsel, and beg to inform him that he shall have 
no reason whatever to complain, when the accounts come to be set- 
tled and cast up at the end of the whole matter, of any reticence or sup- 
pressions on my part." 

He then rose from his prostrate foe, to the level of his great 
theme, concluding thus: 

"We have, I think, the most solemn and the greatest question to 
determine that has come before Parliament in my time. It is only under 



292 GLADSTONE: A BIOGRAPHICAL STUDY. 

very rare circumstances that such a question — the question of the East — 
can be fully raised, fully developed and exhibited, and fully brought 
home to the minds of men with that force, with that command, with 
that absorbing power^ which it ought to exercise over them. In the orig- 
inal entrance of the Turks into Europe, it may be said to have been a turn- 
ing point in human history. To a great extent it continues to be the car- 
dinal question, the question which casts into the shade every other ques- 
tion, and the question which is now brought before the mind of the country 
far more fully than at any period of our history, far more fully than even 
at the time of the Crimean War, when we were pouring forth our blood 
and treasure in what we thought to be the cause of justice and right. 
And I endeavored to impress upon the minds of my audience at Taunton, 
not a blind prejudice against this man or that, but a great watchfulness 
and the duty of great activity. It is the duty of every man to feel that he 
is bound for himself, according to his opportunities, to examine what 
belongs to this question, with regard to which it can never be forgotten 
that we are those who set up the power of Turkey in 1854; that we are 
.those who gave her the strength which has been exhibited in the Bul- 
garian massacres; that we are those who made the treaty arrangements 
that have secured her for twenty years from almost a single hour of un- 
easiness brought about by foreign intervention;. and that, therefore, noth- 
ing can be greater and nothing deeper than our responsibility in the mat- 
ter. It is incumbent upon us, one and all, that we do not allow any 
consideration, either of party or personal convenience, to prevent us from 
endeavoring to the best of our ability to discharge, this great duty, that 
now, at length, in the East, has sprung up; and that in the midst of this 
great opportunity, when all Europe has been called to collective action, 
and when something like European concert has been established — when 
we learn the deep human interests that are involved in every stage of the 
question — as far as England at least is concerned, every Englishman 
should strive to the utmost of his might that justice shall be done." 

He soon proposed a series of resolutions which most comprehen- 
sively attacked the Government, and he supported them in a powerful 
speech which he thus concluded: 

"Sir, there were other days when England was the hope of freedom. 
Wherever in the world a high aspiration was entertained or a noble blow 
was struck, it was to England that the eyes of the oppressed were always 
turned — to this favorite, this darling home of so much privilege and so 
much happiness, where the people that had built up a noble edifice for 



THE KNIGHT ERRANT. 293 

themselves would, it was well known, be ready to do what in them lay 
to secure the benefit of the same inestimable boon for others. You talk to 
me of the established traditions and policy in regard to Turkey. I 
appeal to an established tradition, older, wider, nobler far — a tradition not 
which disregards British interests, but which teaches you to seek the 
promotion of these interests in obeying the dictates of honor and justice. 
And, sir, what is to be the end of this? Are we to dress up the fan- 
tastic ideas some people entertain about this policy and that policy in 
the garb of British interests, and then, with a new and base idolatry, fall 
down and worship them? Or are we to look not at the sentiment, but 
at the hard facts of the case which Lord Derby told us fifteen years ago — 
viz., that it is the populations of those countries' that will ultimately possess 
them — that will ultimately determine their abiding condition? It is to 
this fact, this law, that we should look. There is now before the world 
a glorious prize. A portion of those unhappy people are still as yet making 
an effort to retrieve what they have lost so long, but have not ceased to 
love and to desire. I speak of those in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Another 
portion — a band of heroes such as the world has rarely seen — stand on the 
rocks of Montenegro, and are ready now, as they have ever been during 
the 400 years of their exile from their fertile plains, to sweep 'down from 
their fastnesses, and to meet the Turks at any odds for the re-establishment 
of justice and of peace in those countries. Another portion, still, the 
5,000,000 of Bulgarians cowed and beaten down to the ground, hardly 
venturing to look upwards, even to their Father in Heaven, have extended 
their hands to you; they have sent you their petition, they have prayed 
for your help and protection. They have told you that they do not seek 
alliance with Russia or with any foreign Power, but that they seek to be 
delivered from an intolerable burden of woe and shame. That burden of 
woe and shame — the greatest that exists on God's earth — is one that we 
thought united Europe was about to remove, but to removing which, for 
the present, you seem to have no efficacious means of offering, even the 
smallest practical contribution. But, sir, the removal of that load of woe 
and shame is a great and noble prize. It is a prize well worth competing 
for. It is not too late to try to win it. I believe there are men in the 
Cabinet who would try to win it if they were free to act on their own 
beliefs and aspirations. It is not too late, I say, to become competitors for 
that prize, but be assured that whether you mean to claim for yourselves 
even a single leaf in that immortal chaplet of renown, which will be the 
reward of true labor in that cause, or whether you turn your backs upon 
that cause and upon your own duty, I believe for one, that the knell of 
Turkish tyranny in these provinces has sounded. So far as human ey^ 



294 



GLADSTONE: A BIOGRAPHICAL STUDY. 



can judge, it is about to be destroyed. The destruction may not come 
in the way or by the means that we should choose; but come this boon 
from what hands it may, it will be a noble boon, and as a noble boon will 
gladly be accepted by Christendom and the world." 

One night the House of Commons was thrown into confusion by' 
the startHng report that the Russians were in sight of Constantinople. 
It was a clamorous and wild scene. Although the report was wrong, 
it carried the English fleet through the Dardanelles, and brought the 
navy of England within sight of the Turkish capital. It seemed im- 
possible that negotiations between Russia and England could prevent 
a more serious strife; Russia had entered into negotiations with Turkey 
in the Treaty of San Stefano; but England would have none of this 
arrangement. Russia insisted that while her difficulties with Turkey 
were for herself and Turkey to settle, she was willing to have a con- 
gress of the Great Powers. England replied by calling her Indian 
troops west, and placing them on the Syrian coast and occupying 
Cyprus. Lord Derby declined to remain with the Ministry, for all 
his efforts in behalf of peace had failed, aiid Lord Salisbury took his 
position. Now a "spirited foreign pohcy" was made evident by his 
circular announcing that England would go into no congress in which 
the Treaty of San Stefano could not be fully considered. Prince 
Bismarck now interposed. A congress was to be held in Berlin, and 
the Powers were invited to participate in the discussion which was 
to involve all the provisions of the San Stefano Treaty. Here was the 
moment for Lord Beaconsfield, and he seized it with that avidity which 
he always showed for a dramatic situation. Lord Salisbury was pushed 
aside, and Beaconsfield strode to Berlin amidst acclamations and 
scenic glory. Back from Berlin he came, and the crowds which had 
cheered him on his way thither had doubled in multitude, until their 
shoutings actually bewildered the supreme actor on that occasion. 
He had reached the height, and from that moment on, the applause 
slowly but surely died away. 

Lord John Russell had died on the 28th of May, and the depres- 
sion in trade, coupled with the growing feeling that Beaconsfield's do- 
mestic policy had been a steady neglect of the interests of England 



THE KNIGHT ERRANT. 295 

at home, conspired with disturbances in Ireland to discredit the Gov- 
ernment. There was no one in the House of Commons who could 
attend to Mr. Gladstone in debate, and especially to one other man 
who had exhibited extraordinary resources and skill, great calmness 
and assurance in managing the interests of his party, and an all-con- 
suming devotion to his cause, — Charles Stewart Parnell. 

The invasion of Afghanistan, directed in a large part by the author 
of "Lucille," and possessing none of the better characteristics of that 
sentimental production, added nothing, but took away much from the 
credit of the Government. The South African war, into which the 
English Government had gone with the somewhat romantic energy 
of James Anthony Froude as advisory leader, proved even less wise. 
A Zulu chief and king, Cetewayo, invited the rivalry of Sir Bartle 
Frere, and war was declared, and the king finally put on exhibition in 
London. In the country suffering was increasing constantly. A very 
severe winter had caused great distress among the working classes, 
and Ireland was on the edge of a famine. Gladstone had trained Sir 
Stafford Northcote for many years in debate, and later Disraeli, now 
Lord Beaconsfield, had coached him as a Tory gladiator, but he could 
not give him that fortitude and inflexible strength which he so much 
lacked when he came into the contest with the foes of the Govern- 
ment. Gladstone had defied the ministers to let the constituencies 
decide as to its worth or worthlessness. 



CHAPTER XXXIV. 
THE MEMBER FROM MIDLOTHIAN. 

The autumn of 1879 came. Gladstone himself was determined to al- 
low Midlothian to decide as to the advisability of his remaining in Par- 
liament. Now began a series of speeches from Gladstone, unexcelled 
even in the history of that great Commoner. Could he control and 
conquer a vast assemblage? — his friends even questioned the man of 
three score and ten. He proved that he was not more out of place 
on the platform before five thousand people at the Corn Exchange in 
Edinburgh, or even at the open-air monster meeting in Perth, than 
he had been in the comparatively small auditorium known as the 
House of Commons. On the 4th of December he showed something 
of the versatility of his power as an orator, for at one hour on that 
day he was addressing an enthusiastic assemblage of 6,000 Scotchmen 
on politics, while at another hour he had spoken with grace, dignity 
and elegance, his address as Lord Rector of the University of Glasgow. 
The Scotch people were wild in their admiration of a Scotchman, who, 
they said, had only the misfortune of having been born in England. 
March 8, 1880, the dissolution of Parliament was announced. An 
overwhelming wave of popular sentiment led on by Gladstone had 
swept over the ministry. Beaconsfield rose to the occasion and said: 
"There are some who challenge the expediency of the Imperial charac- 
ter of this realm. Having attempted and failed to enfeeble our col- 
onies by their policy of decomposition, they may now perhaps recognize 
in the disintegration of the United Kingdom a mode which will not 
only accomplish, but precipitate that purpose." Gladstone's reply 
was characteristic and powerful. Lord Derby seceded from Con- 
servatism. The three kingdom.s prepared for an intense struggle, and 
on the loth of March, Gladstone began his second conquest of the 
Midlothian country. It was remarkable with what dignity he dealt 

296 



THE MEMBER FROM MIDLOTHIAN. 297 

with the bitterness and apparent malignity of Disraeli's attack. Refer- 
ring to his opponents, he said: 

"I give them credit for patriotic motives; I give them credit for those 
patriotic motives which are so incessantly and gratuitously denied to us. 
I believe that we are all united, gentlemen — indeed, it would be most 
unnatural if we were not — in a fond attachment, perhaps in something of 
a proud attachment, to the great country to which we belong — to 
this great Empire which has committed to it a trust and a function 
given from Providence as special and remarkable as ever was entrusted 
to any portion of the family of man. Gentlemen, I feel when I speak of 
that trust and that function that words fail me; I cannot tell you what 
I think of the nobleness of the inheritance that has descended upon us, of 
the sacredness of the duty of maintaining it. I will not condescend to 
make it a part of controversial politics. It is a part of my being, of my 
flesh and blood, of my heart and soul. For those ends I have labored 
through my youth and manhood till my hairs are gray. In that faith and 
practice I have lived; in that faith and practice I will die." 

In 1880, during his tour in Scotland, Gladstone's versatility and 
eloquence were demonstrated by masterly speeches on the finances of 
the country, and if ever there had been doubt that the younger Pitt 
was eclipsed by the brilliant display of extraordinary povv^ers of state- 
ment and exposition, these speeches settled the question forever. 
Before audiences excited to exuberant manifestations of patriotism 
on every hand, Gladstone stood with commanding force, and with un- 
rivaled lucidity explained the finances of the country. 

In April, 1880, Lord Beaconsfiekl dissolved Parliament, producing 
a result as unforeseen and as destructive to his hopes as was that 
produced by Gladstone in 1874, when suddenly and against the advice 
of his colleagues, he persisted in dissolution. Many Liberals still be- 
lieve that Gladstone's Government in 1874 might have held on and 
regained the confidence of the country. Nobody thought that Lord 
Beaconsfi eld's Government at Easter, 1880, could be far away from a 
necessary defeat. When the new Parliament came, the uneasy gen- 
tlemen who had occupied the "Cave of Adullam," the band of dis- 
contented ones under Gladstone's leadership, found that their places 
knew them no more. Gladstone himself had come back, after having: 



298 GLADSTONE: A BIOGRAPHICAL STUDY. 

performed a feat uneclipsed in the history of human eloquence. It 
was evident that the Hquor interests had not reappeared with the 
old sneer and power to obstruct or embarrass the Government. A 
large number of journalists had become members, and what John 
Stuart Mill had called the stupidity of the Tories, was set off in contrast 
with the brilliant literary skill of these new figures in official life. 
Herbert Gladstone, the son of the statesman, sat for Leeds. The 
great houses were notably absent, and while questions as to agri- 
culture and the tenure of land were sure to come up, the landed 
proprietors were now to be associated by representative tenant farm- 
ers, who knew at least something about the subject. Fashionable 
society, of course, which had made Toryism a step to its drawing- 
room, regarded the whole collection as countrified and generally un- 
pleasant. There sat Mr. Fawcett and Sir Charles Dilke, ready with 
Radical plans not quite to the liking even of Lord Hartington and 
Lord Granville, who were undoubted Liberals, but the differences 
between the elements in the party were bound up with something of 
amity by the strong hand which led them to this triumph. Since 
the days of Sir Robert Peel when the Reform Bill had swept England 
as by a flood, no man had so completely overturned his foes as had 
Gladstone. After Lord Beaconsfield had gone to Windsor and re- 
signed the seals of his office. Her Majesty sent for Lord Granville to 
constitute a Government. It was a graceful and perhaps necessary 
thing to do, but England did not expect Granville to be the Premier, 
and Granville told the Queen that this was the case. She then 
sent for Lord Hartington, who was an excellent gentleman, having 
sense enough, in spite of his general heaviness, to know that one man 
alone had overturned Beaconsfield and his party, and that his 
name was not Hartington. She then sent for William Ewart Glad- 
stone, and that night he returned from Windsor once more Prime 
Minister of England. 

Mr. Gladstone found himself in office to meet unexpected prob- 
lems. He found the Irish question overwhelmingly significant at the 
very moment when he was trying to deal with the Indian Budget, 
which latter presented the difficulty consequent upon the fact that 



THE MEMBER FROM MIDLOTHIAN. 299 

fifteen millions, instead of six millions, was the debt made by the 
Afghan war. The Queen's speech had called attention to the Berlin 
Treaty, and there were conditions in that document which had not 
been met. On the ist of June, it was understood that what was known 
as the Peace Preservation Act for Ireland would expire. The an- 
nouncement came that there was no intention on the part of the Gov- 
ernment to renew this legislation. The workingmen were told that 
legislation would be had, making employers liable for certain acci- 
dents, and the Irish people were interested to know how far the 
Borough Franchise was to be extended in their country. Everything 
was interrogatory, but it could not remain so. 

To any persons who met and knew Mr. Charles Bradlaugh during 
his visit to America, in which he delivered masterly and most eloquent 
lectures on "Cromwell and Washington," "Republicanism in England" 
and other kindred subjects, it is unnecessary to speak of the pic- 
turesqueness and ineffaceable charm which he brought with him. He 
always spoke of Mr. Gladstone in most friendly terms, and rehearsed 
with great interest the story of Gladstone's development from Toryism 
to Liberalism, dwelling especially upon his attitude toward the Jews 
in Parliament, the Disestablishment of the Irish Protestant Church, 
and his manifest sense of justice toward those w4io differed from him 
in religious opinions. But it w^as impossible that Bradlaugh could 
avoid being a serious thorn in the side of the great Liberal leader. 
His very genius and love of liberty, which allied him to Gladstone, 
made it less easy for Gladstone to handle him as he might have done. 
There were enormous differences between them, Bradlaugh was an athe- 
ist and Gladstone the most devoted of churchmen. Bradlaugh had risen 
from penury and ignorance through countless difficulties to a position 
in England from which he exercised his marvelous powers of eloquence 
and the charm of his interesting though somewhat militant personality. 
He had been a successful lecturer, before audiences whose numbers 
and enthusiasm had increased as he unfolded his negative and some- 
what revolutionary doctrine. He had successfully edited a secularist 
sheet devoted to the propagation of his theories. He had now been 
elected to Parliament for Northampton. Nobody had the slightest 



300 GLADSTONE: A BIOGRAPHICAL STUDY. 

idea that this magnificently-formed creature was to employ the fight- 
ing qualities which had already commended him as a member of the 
British Army, and that these qualities had open before them a new 
era, at the moment when he presented himself to be sworn in as a 
member of the House of Commons. He urged his claim that he be 
allowed to affirm or declare his allegiance, in place of taking the 
oath, as was customary. Time after time he had appeared in the 
highest courts of England, and had been permitted to affirm rather 
than take the oath under the law known as the Parliamentary Oaths 
Act of 1866. The Speaker was dumfounded, as he was to be many 
times afterwards, by the boldness of Bradlaugh's argument, and he 
asked the House of Commons to decide the matter. A select com- 
mittee was appointed to report their opinion on the problem and to 
suggest a way out of the difficulty, and everything appeared to be 
settled when they reported against Bradlaugh. The latter imme- 
diately announced that on the 21st of May he would present himself 
and ofTer to take the oath. This was unexpected, and still more un- 
expected was his defense of his position, in which he insisted that he 
would regard himself bound only by the spirit which would have been 
conveyed by an affirmation, for he could not regard seriously the letter 
of the oath. When that day came he was opposed by Sir H. Drum- 
mond-Wolff, who presented a careful and able argument, insisting that 
Bradlaugh's new position showed that no binding effect on the con- 
science would be exercised by an oath. At this moment Gladstone 
proposed the selection of a committee, but he was seriously opposed 
by those who wished the matter decided at once. Gladstone insisted 
that it ought to be treated with care and wisdom. His opponents 
claimed that Bradlaugh had proposed an act of blasphemy. Gladstone 
and Bright, opposed by Sir Stafford Northcote and Mr. Gibson, ar- 
gued that religious opinions ought not to be involved in the debate, 
but that the question ought to be discussed as a question of statute 
and of justice. At length Mr. Gladstone succeeded, and a committee 
was appointed. 

In the latter part of June, the sprightly and always entertaining 
editor of Truth, Mr. Henry Labouchere, who also came from North- 



THE MEMBER FROM MIDLOTHIAN. 301 

ampton, proposed that Bradlaugh be allowed to affirm or to declare, 
instead of swear, as was the custom. He moved a resolution on the 
ground that the statute gave Bradlaugh this right. All the fearful 
and extraordinarily religious persons in the House of Commons 
thronged about Gladstone, and beseeched him to avoid giving comfort 
or encouragement to so dangerous an infidel as was Bradlaugh. Glad- 
stone arose in the debate, far above the tumult of religious or irre- 
ligious clamor, and made a speech which will be considered a monu- 
ment in the history of religious toleration. The vote showed that the 
House of Commons was unwilling that Bradlaugh should be permitted 
either to swear or to affirm or declare. 

At this time they had only begun to be weary of him. The next 
day Bradlaugh was before the table of the House, asking to be sworn. 
Being ordered to withdraw, and refusing to obey, the sergeant-at- 
arms took him into custody on the motion of Sir Stafford Northcote, 
and he was placed in the clock tower. In twenty-four hours the freed 
atheist was abroad again in the world, and on July ist, the piety 
of England breathed more freely because a resolution had been passed 
which permitted any person who claimed to be one allowed by law 
to affirm, to do so, instead of swearing, but leaving him to the conse- 
quences of prosecution on a statute making members liable. Of 
course Bradlaugh affirmed, meanwhile keeping his seat in the House 
of Commons. Now began a series of lawsuits against him, which left 
him day by day more and more deeply involved in debt, for every case 
went against him. 

With Bradlaugh's case, for the moment, a little out of the way, 
Mr. Parnell arose as the fearless and resourceful champion of Ireland. 
Gladstone had taken his measure at an early date, and wath wonderful 
astuteness he led Parnell into an ever-increasing influence in the House 
of Commons. Parnell had established the Land League. Mr. ATichael 
Davitt, who had commended himself to Ireland by having been incar- 
cerated in jail as a Fenian, willingly seconded Parnell in his upbuilding 
this association of tenants in Irelandj and this was done just at the 
moment when Irish landlords were pursuing a policy of wholesale evic- 
tion in the very districts which had suffered most from famine. When 



302 GLADSTONE: A BIOGRAPHICAL STUDY. 

the House of Commons had made an heroic effort to legislate in the 
direction of compensation for these penniless and suffering tenants, 
the House of Lords, with its usual conservatism, crushed the plan. 

Early in January, 1881, it was evident that a struggle was on hand 
arising from the use of obstruction as a Parliamentary weapon. What 
was called the "Irish Protection of Property Bill" was to be brought 
up, and the Queen's speech had already opened a struggle which in- 
volved the discussion of the condition of Ireland, and it lasted eight 
days. Unprecedented as was the length of this debate on the Queen's 
speech, the most wonderful thing about it was the fact that Mr. 
Gladstone held his temper in the midst of the most vexatious circum- 
stances. Parnell and his friends repeated uninteresting statements 
and rehearsed ancient arguments until the members of the House 
of Commons found that they knew them by heart. Some of the 
representatives of the English boroughs participated in the discussion 
and there was almost no opposition on their part to the Bill. After 
a little time the extremists of the Home Rule party took entire charge 
of the talk and prosecuted the scheme of putting in the time, and they 
held to it with a tenacity unparalleled. Adjournments were moved 
repeatedly, harangues conceived with ingenuity for consuming time 
were offered, and from night to night the expected division was put off 
because of the interposition of a new and long-continued speech. 
Even the usual hour for adjournment made no difference. It was 
passed and repassed. All night and all day motions and speeches 
joined with amendments and resolutions continued the sitting. Some- 
times Mr. Forster had a sharp tilt with an Irish member, and some- 
times a little wit illumined the dullness and hopelessness of the situa- 
tion. The Government stood with its majority, able to defeat Mr. 
Parnell and his colleagues in everything but this, while Mr. Parnell 
and his crowd supplied a speaker whenever one was needed. A 
systematic effort was made to rest the thirty or forty Home Rulers 
who had begun to grow weary. Some went home and slept, being 
careful to return on time and relieve the others who had talked dur- 
ing the night. Then they went to bed. Never before had the House 
of Commons sat so long, and on Tuesday night the excitement was 



THE MEMBER FROM MIDLOTHIAN. 303 

intense. From every part of London where the lamp could be seen 
shining still in the high chamber of the tower of the Houses of Parlia- 
ment, indicating that the House of Commons was still in session, men 
were gazing in wonder or in wrath that the obstructionists could hold 
things so long. They were surpassing every like success they had 
achieved in the past and were emboldened by their triumph. Whips 
were walking about in the early morning, taking hold of this sleepy 
member and that and urging them to remain, for it was certain that 
human nature could not hold out much longer. The ire of those who 
had endured this persistent obstruction had now arisen and they must 
speak. There was no sHghtest indication that the Home Rulers could 
not have talked on another day or two, but anger was evident upon the 
faces of those who saw Mr. Gladstone, who had been vainly endeavor- 
ing to master the situation and lead the House in the discharge of 
public business. At the usual breakfast time a highly irritated crowd 
of members were speaking most bitterly over their morning repast in 
the breakfast room, into which daylight was coming. The whips 
suddenly hurried in and the company broke up and rushed to the 
House. Gladstone, worn, pale and undaunted, had unexpectedly re- 
entered. The Speaker of the House arose and stopped the debate in 
words that have become famous in the history of Parliamentary pro- 
ceedings, and asked a vote on the question. Mr. Justin McCarthy, who 
was leading the Home Rulers in the temporary absence of Mr. 
Parnell, protested, but he was silenced. Out of the House he strode 
with his colleagues, all of them shouting "Privilege! Privilege!" 

Now those who had endured for so long this method of obstruc- 
tion expressed their pent-up rejoicings in repeated cheers. Gladstone 
arose at once and gave notice that he would move resolutions, 
next day, enabling the House of Commons to proceed with business 
under the order of the Speaker, who should be invested with new 
powers for the control of debate. It had taken a great amount of 
courage on the part of the Speaker; it now remained for Gladstone to 
use his majority in wisdom. Next day Mr. Parnell and his colleagues, 
after having thrown the authority of the Speaker to the winds, placed 
the Government under the necessity of removing them. London was 



304 GLADSTONE: A BIOGRAPHICAL STUDY. 

excited and England looked forward to the day when a less sensible 
and fair presiding officer might abuse the authority with which Glad- 
stone's motion, on that day, had invested the Speaker of the House of 
Commons. There was no question but that Gladstone emerged from 
the difficulty to the admiration of all England. He had shown fair- 
ness and patience, now he showed decisiveness and strength. 
He spoke thus at Leeds, as he spoke elsewhere: 

"The way to make England great in the estimation of foreign coun- 
tries is to let it be known by every one that England desires above all 
things to be just, and will not seek to impose upon them any laws of ac- 
tion, or any principles for the interpretation of their conduct, except those 
to which she herself submits." 

Referring to Parliament, he said, in another speech: 

"The twelve Parliaments in which I have sat have surpassed all their 
predecessors in the amount of devotion, measured by time and actual 
expenditure of energy, which they have given to the public service. I 
know not whether the half-century that is to come — and to it most of 
you who are here assembled may reasonably look forward, although I may 
not — will be one which will .record upon its annals as many real tri- 
umphs, as many records of evil mitigated and of good achieved for the 
benefit of the Empire and of mankind. God grant it may be so; but of 
one thing I feel assured, and that is_, that the same pride which has con- 
ducted and animated the nation during the half-century that is now for 
me expiring, will continue to subsist in the breasts of my fellow-country- 
men under circumstances equally favorable, and will not fail to produce 
at least equally favorable results." — Speech at the London Guildhall, 
Oct. 14. 

Large and International hopes were making him England's "Old 
Man Eloquent." 




GLADSTONE AND HIS GRANDCHILD 




PRINCE OF WALES' VISIT 



CHAPTER XXXV. 
THE IRISH PROBLEM AGAIN. 

Now even Gladstone's heart was faint at the unexpected behavior 
of the Irish people, while murder followed murder in that unhappy 
country. It was impossible that Gladstone, pledged as were his heart, 
intellect and conscience to redeem Ireland, could avoid favoring a 
Coercion Bill, which, in turn, simply provoked the Irish people to 
more outrages. He was at work on a Land Bill, which, at a later 
time, was to be offered and its wisest provisions to be torn out ruth- 
lessly by the House of Lords. Ireland arose against him in the rural 
districts and at Dublin, and Mr. Parnell, aided by powerful colleagues, 
pursued the policy of obstructing everything in the House of Com- 
mons, until the cry of Ireland for self-government should be heard. 
Years afterward, Mr. Gladstone admitted, that he had inherited so much 
of embarrassment and labor consequent upon the misgovernment 
under Beaconsfield, that he had no just conception of the Irish problem 
at that moment. He had done much for Ireland, but he had done 
just enough to get Ireland on the way in the evolution of righteous 
government, or in a revolution which they seemed willing to under- 
take. He had so far believed that the Irish question was settled that 
the Queen's speech did not mention the subject. Mr. William E. 
Forster, a most sagacious, well-meaning and able gentleman, was Chief 
Secretary for Ireland, and his Bill, known as the Compensation for 
Disturbance Bill, had been rejected by the House of Lords, leaving 
the peasant farmers of Ireland to make their own fight against the 
landlords who persistently evicted them. 

In August, 1880, Mr. Forster said that he did not think the 
Houses "would expect him to remain the instrument of that injustice." 
More than 17,000 persons were evicted, and in most cases the farms 
upon which they had lived had been greatly improved by them; in 

20 305 



3o6 GLADSTONE: A BIOGRAPHICAL STUDY. 

some cases the Fen-country had been redeemed and made vakiable and 
productive soil by their labors. The League attempted to do what 
they believed the Government ought to have been doing, and 
crime was rampant everywhere. Under the influence of Mr. Forster, 
prosecutions were ordered which reached Mr. Parnell and his col- 
leagues. Now the Gladstone Government and the Irish contingent, 
led by Mr. Parnell, were at swords points in the House of Commons. 
Surely the Coercion Bill o'f Mr. Forster, which enabled him, by sign- 
ing a warrant, to put any man in jail if he suspected him to have com- 
mitted an offense, and all this without trial, was a hard thing 
for the Irish people to bear, and a difficult thing for Gladstone 
to defend. Murder so followed upon the heels of outrage in 
Ireland that it may be said the Irish people forced Mr. Gladstone, at 
the very hour they ought to have awaited his evident design to help 
them, to make this formidable legislation effective. Never was Mr. 
Gladstone placed in such an unhappy position. He rushed forward 
with all his energies to the introduction of his Land Bill, and on April 
7th he offered this conciliatory legislation. At last he defended the 
proposition that the State ought to stand between the domineering 
landlord and the half-crushed tenant and do justice to both. Of 
course he had been urged so rapidly by events to this measure that 
it lacked perfection, and it could not represent all the wisdom and 
humanity in his nature. But the Bill remains as a most heroically 
conceived page in the statutory progress of mankind. It seemed a 
brighter day had come when the Land Commissioners, which the Gov- 
ernment appointed under this Act, assembled in Dublin Castle, where 
they were selected, and confronted the bitterness which had 
grown in Ireland from the fact that it had been asserted that landlord- 
ism would choose these Commissioners. Parnell had advised the selec- 
tion of a few special cases, out from the multitude which the farmers 
wanted, to place in the hands of the land courts. He wished in this 
way to test the good faith of the Government. Of course the Gov- 
ernment regarded this as equivocal and demagogic. Even Mr. Glad- 
stone labored with Mr. Parnell and insisted that the action gave the 
appearance of wishing to keep the people from the benefit of his Act. 



THE IRISH PROBLEM AGAIN. 307 

Mistake followed mistake on both sides. In October Parnell and 
several of his colleagues in the House of Commons, with numerous 
other leaders elsewhere, were arrested, the Land League was declared 
an illegal association, and everywhere was confusion. Ireland would 
not wait a moment for Mr. Gladstone, though at that hour Mr. Glad- 
stone was making such speeches as should indicate his lack of sympathy 
with the policy of coercion, and his deep study on the subject of 
Ireland's woes. He said to the representative of Ireland: 

"My Lord Mayor, it is not with the people of Ireland that we are at 
issue. ... It is not on any point connected with the exercise of local 
government in Ireland — it is not even on any point connected with what 
is popularly known in that country as Home Rule, and which may be un- 
derstood in any one of a hundred senses, some of them perfectly accepta- 
ble and even desirable; others of them mischievous and revolutionary. 
... I for one will hail with satisfaction and delight any measure of 
local government for Ireland, or for any portion of the country, provided 
only that it conform to this one condition — that it shall not break down or 
impair the supremacy of the Imperial Parliament." 

Hardly less fortunate was the position of Mr. Forster, the Chief 
Secretary. There is no doubt that Mr. Forster's failure to help Ire- 
land broke his heart. From early life he had interested himself in 
her relief. No man had given more freely of his time and money and 
labor, and he sincerely believed, when he became Chief Secretary, that 
something could be done definitely to conclude the unpleasantness be- 
tween Ireland and England. He counted too much upon the suspicion 
that Irish agitators were misrepresenting the people of Ireland and 
were leading the tenant-farmers to desire and demand what otherwise 
they would not care for. Lie had too much faith in the jail as a means 
of repressing free thought on political subjects. Ev^ry priest and 
poor-law guardian whom he locked up was one more man of the 
many who were thus taken from the communities which they might 
have controlled and restrained from acts of violence. Ireland was a 
camp, and Mr. Forster rode away dispirited and broken. 

If ever the great heart of one, set upon devising liberal things for 
a hot-headed yet wronged people, was struck in the moment of his 



3o8 GLADSTONE: A BIOGRAPHICAL STUDY. 

deepest hope for them, it was Gladstone; when the news came to 
London that Lord Frederick Cavendish, the new Chief Secretary, and 
Mr. Thomas Burke, an ofBcial in Dublin Castle, had been foully as- 
sassinated in Phoenix Park, Dublin. Mr. Parnell was just out of jail, 
and Gladstone had then arranged to bring in what was called an 
Arrears Bill which offered great relief to Ireland. At this moment 
civilization was made to shudder before the prostrate and hacked 
bodies of these two representatives of law and order. The storm 
which raged around Gladstone grew in fierceness, and it almost seemed 
at one time that the opponents of his Government could not be re- 
sponsible for his life. Parnell generously offered to retire from Parlia- 
ment and public life, if Gladstone said the word. With equal magna- 
nimity and with dauntless heroism Gladstone stood in the midst of 
the tempest like a pillar, against which Parnell was commanded still 
to lean, and the pillar moved not while the tumult raged. Of course 
the effect of this most cruelly conceived and executed murder was 
inimical to Ireland, yet at that moment Gladstone took hold of the 
wronged and needy country with more affection and hope than ever. 
It is at this time that some old and affectionate friends departed 
from him. Many upon whom he felt he had the right to count' 
failed to indorse his course. Principal Tulloch's biography furnishes 
a portrait of a really noble mind perplexed, if not outraged by Glad- 
stone's policy: 

"Did you hear yesterday," (May y, 1882,) he says, "the appalling news 
from Ireland? 

"It came to Eton at midday, just as we were coming out of the chapel. 
Professor Knight had come down from town, bringing an 'Observer' with 
the dreadful announcement. Everybody was excited beyond measure. 
There is something diabolical in the business, and you may imagine the 
state in which London has been, and still is. It will cover the end of Glad- 
stone's career with disastrous disgrace, and, I should think, break to pieces 
the Liberal party. The sooner, in fact, this is done, the better. The first 
article in the 'Times' expresses my views about the matter better than 
anything I have seen elsewhere. They may say what they like about the 
'Times,' it rises to a great occasion^ and I have seen no writing on the 
subject at once so justly indignant and yet so controlled. Of course the 



THE IRISH PROBLEM AGAIN. 309 

Government acted for the best; but nothing can excuse their course in 
breaking with Mr. Forster, and if the result was brought about, as the best 
informed here beheve, by a Radical intrigue within the Cabinet, it could 
only end in disgraceful ruin, as it has done. W. E. G. is no doubt a great 
man, but he is both perilously facile and self-willed, which is a disastrous 
combination of qualities for a statesman; and that his star should sink, as I 
have little doubt it must, in such a miserable and awful collapse, is pitiful 
indeed. And yet who can take his place? The whole party business has 
worked itself out, and what the country needs is a combination of wise and 
sensible men on both sides^ which the Radicals, of course, would do their 
best to prevent." 

Meantime Mr. Gladstone's greatest rival. Lord Beaconsfield, had 
terminated his career. It was Gladstone's proposition that the ashes 
of his most distinguished political foe should be buried in Westminster 
Abbey with proper ceremonies, but Lord Beaconsfield's will had given 
other instructions, and he was buried at Hughenden. Mr. Gladstone, 
on the 9th of May, made a motion that Her Majesty be presented with 
an address asking her to direct the erection of a monument in West- 
minster Abbey to Lord Beaconsfield. In spite of the opposition of 
the Liberal party, after a noble speech, Mr. Gladstone carried his mo- 
tion. 

On May 15th Gladstone introduced the Arrears Bill, in which the 
Irish Church surplus, and, in the case of its failure to furnish enough 
money, a Consolidated Fund was to supply tHe amount necessary to 
pay the landlords half the remaining arrears after the tenant had paid 
his year's rent due for 1881, in so far as he might, the holding being 
under thirty pounds valuation. By this Bill either landlord or tenant 
could apply to the Land Court for justice. After a stormy time in 
the House of Commons, where it was much changed in unimportant 
particulars, and a fight in the House of Lords, this legislation was 
passed. 

Now stepped into the arena of debate the towering form of Charles 
Bradlaugh. Sir Stafford Northcote's motion had prevented his taking 
the oath on the 7th of February. The effort to obtain the issue of a 
new wTit for Northampton had failed, even though the editor of 
"Truth" had urged it with singular powers of persuasion. There 



3IO GLADSTONE: A BIOGRAPHICAL STUDY. 

seemed nothing else for Bradlaugh to do but to swear himself in, and 
one day the Speaker and the House of Commons were amazed to be- 
hold this undesired presence before the table, where he proceeded to 
administer the oath to himself. Still Gladstone would not interpose 
against Bradlaugh, though the scene was becoming ludicrous in the 
extreme. The House expelled him, and Northampton re-elected him, 
and, for a little time, Bradlaugh reposed upon his questionable honors. 

One of the inheritances from the Government of Jingoism under 
Beaconsfield which annoyed Gladstone seriously, was the Eastern ques- 
tion. In August, 1877, Mr. Gladstone had written an important article 
in the "Nineteenth Century" called "Aggression on Egypt and Free- 
dom in the East." 

He thus wrote of the material greatness of England, saying: 

"The root and pith and substance of the material greatness of our 
nation lies within the compass of these islands; and is, except in trifling 
particulars, independent of all and every sort of political dominion beyond 
them. This dominion adds to our fame, partly because of its moral and 
social grandeur, partly because foreigners partake the superstitions, which 
still to no small extent prevail among us, and think that in the vast aggre- 
gate of our scattered territories lies the main secret of our. strength." 

He continued, saying: 

"Nations are quite as much subject as individuals to mental intem- 
perance; and the sudden flash of wealth and pride, which engenders in 
the man arrogant vulgarity, works by an analogous and subtler process 
upon numbers who have undergone the same exciting experience. In- 
deed, they are the more easily misled, because conscience has not to re- 
proach each unit of a mass with a separate and personal selfishness. With 
respect to the Slav provinces, the 'strong man' of British interests, of 
traditional policy, and of hectoring display, has been to a great degree 
kept down by a 'stronger man;' by the sheer stern sense of right and 
wrong, justice and injustice, roused in the body of the people by mani- 
festations of unbounded crime. But it may be very doubtful whether, 
in questions where ethical laws do not so palpably repress the solicita- 
tions of appetite, the balance of forces will be so cast among us as to 
insure the continuance of that wonderful self-command, with which the 
nation has now for so long a time resisted temptation, detected imposture, 
encouraged the feeble virtues, and neutralized the inveterate errors of its 
rulers." 



CHAPTER XXXVI. 
GLADSTONE AND BRIGHT. 

Egypt, however, had been occupied by English troops, and under 
the leadership of Arabi Pasha, an insurrection had sprung up against 
the Khedive. Soon the English guns were heard bombarding Alex- 
andria. 

Before this action had been taken an event occurred in the history 
of Mr. Gladstone's friendships which touched his heart deeply. On 
the 17th of July, John Bright came into the House of Commons, and 
his very manner betokened that his relations to Mr. Gladstone's Gov- 
ernment had been changed. On the second bench below the gangway 
he sat, pale and yet massive in his nobility, and every eye was upon 
him. It was almost impossible to proceed with the disposition of the 
usual questions, and as soon as this matter was disposed of, the room 
was full of cries for Bright. He rose with great dignity, and with per- 
fect sobriety of utterance and evident sorrow addressed the House, to 
which Gladstone replied in excellent taste. 

Mr. John Bright was something more than an orator of highest 
quality and of widest popularity, more than a statesman of profound 
sagacity and constructive force, even more than an assailant of respecta- 
ble iniquity and a champion of neglected justice; he was an influence, 
a spiritual guide in practical affairs, a serene presence in stormy hours, 
'a fortress of belief standing for a divine and eternal order, a pillar of 
fire radiant and even warm, — brilliant, genial, and pervasive — as he 
moved on toward the dream and reality of the measureless peace. In- 
deed, his career and his messag»e may never be understood, except as 
one recognizes at the first that he was above all a man of peace and what 
sort of peace he stood for. His peace was not the peace of weakness 
awed and crushed by power, not the peace of surrender to haughty 
evil, not the peace of brainless stagnation and thoughtless acquiescence, 

311 



312 GLADSTONE: A BIOGRAPHICAL STUDY. 

still less the peace of hopelessness and death; but his was the peace of 
power. "My peace I leave with you!" said his Master, and Him this 
affectionate disciple always obeyed. He trusted truth; he believed in 
ideas; he risked all upon principles; he was sure of the victory for peace, 
because they were and are for peace, and theirs is the only triumph men 
or nations can afford to seek or to have. He detested war, because war 
is an abandonment of the conviction that ideas rule. He knew that 
military glory is barbarous, and he saw that a nation sheathed in steel 
is and must be a weak nation, having lost confidence in the power of 
truth to make its way in the world, or, worse still, having truth against 
her, and vainly thinking to resist such a divine antagonist. He had 
been reared in and he represented an industrial constituency, and war 
paralyzes industry and cheats the laborer. He was one of the common 
people, a friend at their firesides, and war runs its red desolation through 
the homes of the poor and the middle classes; theirs is the agony and 
catastrophe of battle urged on, too often, by the favored classes who 
leave no widows and orphans by the bellicose cnaracter of speech or 
act, who also succeed in arranging it so that the taxation consequent 
upon the triumph of hate and the well-nigh intolerable burdens result- 
ing from the anger they have fomented, must be borne and cared for 
by the common people. Therefore the phrase "honor" did not mean 
"war" in his or in the true vocabulary of England. When England 
went to war with China and with Russia, England must have his con- 
demnation and Manchester his seat. When the South fired on Fort 
Sumter to protect slavery, he knew she had lost faith in truth or truth 
was against her, and he gave his eloquence to the other side, whose 
captain cried out: "Let us have peace!" When the guns of his own 
dear England discharged their missiles upon Alexandria, he vacated 
his lofty seat and broke his official relationship with his great and loved 
friend, Gladstone. He feared and loved God absolutely, as he did and 
could none else. He had no use for Jingoism, be it born in any quarter 
whatsoever. "The sword," said Hugo, "is a flash in the darkness; right 
is the eternal ray." And Bright believed this without faltering. 

What had united Gladstone to him in bonds of secure and deep 
friendship was not learning, for, in the sense in which Gladstone was. 



GLADSTONE AND BRIGHT. 313 

Bright was not, a learned man. He was educated in the lore of God, and 
he did know and believe in the possibilities of human nature ultimately 
to see and to do the truth. Not many, but some languages were his; 
not a multitude, but several philosophers he had mastered; not .all the 
patristic writers, but some and all the evangelists and apostles, prophets 
and heroes he knew with profoundest sympathy; not the whole classical 
world and its chief figures were his study, but he knew the lowly, the 
needy, and the helpless in his own time; not ^schylus, Euripides, 
Homer and Horace, so much as Dante, Shakespeare, Milton, and free- 
dom-loving Whittier, fed his soul; but above all these, he so loved and 
understood the Bible, and he so nourished his mighty spirit on its 
poetry, its worship, its hope, that Bright and Gladstone found a com- 
panionship of spirits as perfect as it was beautiful and blessed. Deep 
were the streams of religious aspirations running through both natures, 
though Gladstone was a High Churchman of the Episcopal order, 
and Bright was a plain Quaker. Each of these men saw light in His 
light from different points of view. Gladstone's almost immeasurable 
catholicity of mind is illustrated in the letters written to John Henry 
Newman, who went to Rome, and John Bright, who "stood on a tomb- 
stone in Rochdale Churchyard and denounced Church Rates," and 
wanted no Bishop in the House of Lords, maintaining that the Lord's 
Supper, which, to Gladstone, was invested with sacramental graces, 
could be only a friendly meal with no authority as to its recurrence. In 
all his relations with Bright, Gladstone knew that he was dealing with 
one of the most sincerely religious, as well as one of the most coura- 
geously independent men in all the kingdom. He was aware that this 
man had no use whatever for his own doctrines as to the relations of 
Church and State. A Christianity needing a State's support is the 
King of Kings on a crutch of wood, and a State needing an established 
Church is a government leaning on a well-paid phantom. Bright had 
always maintained that a majority of the nation had forsaken the Eng- 
lish Church, and he thought that to be taxed to support it was a pro- 
posal worthy of opposition. He never felt that a Dissenter ought to 
be treated as an outlaw. But Gladstone must always be reckoned upon 
as a man of too deep piety and too earnest devotion to God to fail in 



314 GLADSTONE: A BIOGRAPHICAL STUDY. 

appreciating and calling to his aid a man who possessed the manly 
vigor of faith, the uncasuistical zeal, the robust austerity of conduct, the 
affectionateness of devotion, the power of discerning and obeying the 
highest revelation of truth, characteristic of the nature and temper of 
John Bright. 

For the greater part of the career of each, they were sworn allies in 
the fight for the victory of that true and just Liberalism which is bound 
to rule the future. Gladstone felt with Bright, and would have acted 
with him in the matter of the Crimean War, if the former had not been 
of that impressionable and agile nature which yielded perhaps enough 
to his Oxford training. Gladstone's father had used slavery to advance 
his interests as a merchant; the Quakers violently abhorred slavery, 
and Gladstone and Bright parted on the question of the Civil War in 
America, although it must be remembered, as we have said, in justice 
to Gladstone, that he favored the education of the slaves held by Eng- 
lish interests, and hoped, in that way, to help them to freedom. They 
were bound to part on the Irish question, and Bright had opposed 
the bombardment of Alexandria. Greater than their differences were 
their alliances, for each of these men could pronounce the word God, 
in the flood of splendid eloquence, and not feel it necessary to tell a 
nerveless and materiahstic England that he felt bound to offer an 
apology for his belief that the secret of all true statesmanship lies in 
finding in what direction the Almighty One is going. These men had 
the faith that God moves to great ends by means of and through human 
advancement, and statesmanship is the art of getting things, — trade, 
art, institutions, social forms, and whatever else^ — out of His track, 
or, better still, getting them all into His chariot, that they may not be 
crushed beneath the wheels; nay, rather that they may be borne on to 
His ends. 

We have it from Gladstone's own lips that he admired and relied 
upon Bright's oratorical gifts and the exercise of their power as much 
as Bright did upon his own. In eloquence, they were as different only 
as their natures and methods of culture. Gladstone drew from foun- 
tains unknown to Bright's limited knowledge. Bright drank from 
streams unvisited by Gladstone's unsurpassed and somewhat aristocratic 



GLADSTONE AND BRIGHT. 315 

erudition. The human soul Bright knew, and it is greater than all the 
literature or history it has produced; the fairest and most luminous page 
it has written or inspired Gladstone knew, l3ut these alone he knew as 
Bright knew the soul of man, and, therefore, while Gladstone surpassed 
him by reaching laterally the length and breadth of man's concerns and 
treating them with lucidity and learning. Bright surpassed Gladstone by 
reaching depths of passion and power, and heights of aspiration and 
hope which he alone, of modern English orators, saw and understood. 
When Bright poised himself for flight, when the concerns of suffering 
humanity had no other voice amidst the din of ignorant sovereignties 
clashing themselves to fury, or the patronizing silence of intelligence 
softly resting in its fancied security, England at last recognized the fact 
'that he had a realm all his own, and so easily masterful then was his 
intellect and conscience of even his great physical powers that he rose 
to heights not reached by men of less lofty spiritual capability of imag- 
ination. 

Disraeli alone sparkled, as did he, in lively epigram, and burned, 
as did he, in caustic irony or penetrative wit. Not even Disraeli sur- 
passed him in scorching sarcasm, and Bright possessed a world of 
humor, sweet and wide, to which the great British phrase-maker was a 
stranger. Speaking of Disraeli's high-sounding plan for Irish pacifica- 
tion, he said: 

" .... It reminds me of an anecdote, which is related by Addi- 
son. Writing about the curious things which happened in his time, he says 
there was a man who made a living by cheating the country people. I 
do not know whether it was in Buckinghamshire or not. (Laughter.) 
He was not a cabinet minister — he was only a montebank — (great laugh- 
ter) — and he set up a stall, and sold pills that were very good against the 
earthquake. (Roars of laughter.) Well, that is about the state of things 
that we are in now. There is an earthquake in Ireland. Does anybody 
doubt it?" 

As the champion of Gladstone, he answered Disraeli's complaint 
that the former had "harassed every trade, worried every profession, 
and assailed or menaced every class, institution or species of property 
in the country." Bright caught the w'ord "harass.'' as he often found a 



3i6 GLADSTONE: A BIOGRAPHICAL STUDY. 

term and invested it with an unexpected force by placing it to a surpris- 
ing use. He said in reply, concerning the Tories.: "Without doubt, 
if they had been in the Wilderness they would have condemned the Ten 
Commandments as a harassing piece of legislation, though it does hap- 
pen that we have the evidence of more than thirty centuries to the wis- 
dom and usefulness of those commandments." He never permitted 
himself to use the weapon of scorn which showed its edge now and 
then, and he preferred to match Disraeli's air of superiority, when he 
sneered, with imperturbable dignity or gay humor. Gladstone's per- 
sonality, Disraeli's personality, if he really had one, were no more truly 
set forth in their speeches than was Bright's in his own. In tacking 
ship, as we have indicated, there are moments when the sailor himself 
seems to depend on a most tricky wind, and Gladstone's mind often 
seemed quite uncertain as to just what he would do with the sails. He 
says "perhaps," "one might say," "possible view of the case," and numer- 
ous other phrases which make one feel that he does not grasp the lines 
with any clear plan as to the next movement. But he is handling a ship 
on board of which is a noisy lot of people who have to be consulted — 
he is feeling of them, feeling of the sea, feeling of the air itself. When 
he knows, his every nerve is lightning, and his slightest touch has the 
assurance of measureless strength alHed with a purpose as inevitable 
as gravitation. Bright had only the greatest admiration for Gladstone's 
ability to do this and for his boundless industry and happy fortune in 
keeping in with the crew, wind, and tide, and yet ruling them. But there 
it ended, for Bright was as little laborious as even a poetic and eloquent 
commoner could be. Gladstone scarcely ever withdrew from the win- 
dows of himself, — his eyes shone with the soul looking out, eager to 
flash its message or to scan the situation. He almost never seemed other 
than intense and interested. Bright often went far behind those blue 
eyes of his and retired from the fortress-like countenance, and, having 
found a good soft place, he rested. When he came back he saw straight 
before him, and had not a moment for an ambiguous phrase; the foe 
was clearly beheld; the stroke was brilliant and sure as fate. 



CHAPTER XXXVII. 

EGYPT AND DEFEAT. 

Meantime the British Government was attempting to put clown the 
rebellion, and an important expedition under General Wolseley had 
routed the Egyptians out of Tel-el-Kebir. There can be no question 
that Gladstone had been forced into despatching this army, and that, 
as Prime Minister, he was following up an initiative which his own 
brain and heart and conscience never would have made, but for which 
he was now to bear the responsibility, and for whose unfortunate issue 
he was to carry odium to the end of his career. The Jingo policy of 
Beaconsfield had gotten into the blood of the present Government, 
and it was impossible for Gladstone and other Liberal leaders to get 
it out until the war was on, and everywhere in England Tories and 
dissenting Liberals were taunting Gladstone for having adopted a 
policy as fantastic and belligerent as Beaconsfield's, both toward Ire- 
land in Acts of Coercion and toward Egypt in prosecuting strife in 
the Soudan. London opinion was noisy and uncontrollable under 
the leadership of the "Pall Mall Gazette." It had previously demanded 
that at once no less a prominent figure and brave soldier than Charles 
George Gordon should be sent to handle the difficulties at Khartoum. 
Sir Garnet Wolseley 's expedition was now pressing on to his relief. 
Never were two men more deeply trusted than were Gordon and 
Wolseley. The former had always carried the heart of the British 
nation. In 1880 he had visited Ireland and had written to the "London 
Times:" "I have lately been over the Southwest of Ireland, in the 
hope of discovering how some settlement could be made of the Irish 
question, which, like a fretting cancer, eats away our vitals as a nation. 
No half-measure acts," he added, "which left the landlord with any say 
to the tenantry of these portions of Ireland, will be of any use. They 

317 



3i8 GLADSTONE: A BIOGRAPHICAL STUDY. 

would be rendered, as past Land Acts in Ireland have been, quite 
abortive; for the landlords will insert clauses to do away with their 
force. Any half-measures will only place the Government face to 
face with the people of Ireland as the champion of the landlord class." 
He proposed that £80,000,000 be spent to transform the southwestern 
portion of Ireland into Crown Land, where landlordism should not 
reign. 

England had heard him and admired him unreservedly for his 
heroism, his high personal character, and, above all, for that glowing 
chivalry which his presence kindled in the hearts of those who knew 
him. Wolseley as a soldier had proven himself able to carry through 
other daring achievements such as this. P'ar away from the scene, 
England watched day by day, hoping that Wolseley might be able to 
relieve Gordon. 

At the instant when Gordon was most dear to the heart of the 
realm, and when Wolseley was thought to be on the point of relieving 
him, the news came to England that Gordon had been murdered at 
Khartoum. In this awful calamity the people of England almost forgot 
that Gladstone had concluded the war with the Boers in South Africa 
in a way that afterwards brought honor to his name. His Government 
blundered here. London was wild with wrath against Gladstone for 
the failure of his Government to relieve Gordon. He was the subject 
of scorn and severest censure on almost every hand. Even a year after 
the sad event, Andrew Lang found an echo in the English heart for 
such a sonnet as this: 



"To-morrow is a year since Gordon died! 
A year ago to-night, the Desert still 
Crouched on the spring, and panted for its fill 

Of lust and blood. Their old art statesman plied, 

And paltered, and evaded, and denied; 
Guiltless as yet, except for feeble will, 
And craven heart, and calculated skill 

In long delays, of their great homicide. 



EGYPT AND DEFEAT. 319 

"A year ago to-night 't was not too late. 

The thought comes throiigli' our mirth, again, again; 
Methinks I hear the halting foot of Fate 

Approaching and approaching us; and then 
Comes cackle of the House, and the Debate! 

Enough; he is forgotten amongst men." 

There can be no doubt that Englishmen will be divided for many 
years to come as to the value of Mr. Gladstone as a minister in foreign 
affairs. Americans have a point of view with reference to this topic 
which is not shared by our English friends. There has never been a 
spirit in America, and there never can be, let us hope, such as England 
experienced during those days when a Jingo policy was a passport in 
British society, and when any most stupid man who talked about Im- 
perial plans and Imperial interests, and Imperial enterprises, was sup- 
posed to possess a sagacity to which men of the intellectual caliber of 
Mr. Gladstone, could not, by some unhappy fault of nature, attain. The 
truth is that Gladstone's indiscretions as a foreign Ministejr have all 
been owing to his yielding somewhat to a Toryism from which at 
last he entirely freed himself. He did not have use for their word "Im- 
perialism;" he was the famous opposer of their schemes. No man 
had a more serious or complicated problem that he, an English 
statesman living in the time of Benjamin Disraeli, who found that char- 
acteristic and pestiferous demand amongst Englishmen to have 
a hand in everybody's affairs and to reduce the islands of the sea and 
the States of both continents, if possible, into a sort of federation 
which shall have its chief loyalty at Westminster and its chief glory 
in the sovereign of the British Isles. The conception of peace which 
has ruled in England for many years has not been such as would allow 
a man like Gladstone to be thoroughly trusted. He found endless 
difificulty in going as far as he did toward peace with all the world, 
because of the fact that the little Island gets crowded, and that Jingo- 
ism, in one form or another, contaminates the air. Certainly no one 
can condemn Gladstone, — perhaps with a single exception, when Gor- 
don was not relieved at Khartoum in time, and we reverently believe 



320 GLADSTONE: A BIOGRAPHICAL STUDY. 

that there may have been insuperable difficulties before Gladstone in 
this case; he had been slow to get into trouble, but powerful and rapid 
enough when the strife was on. Surely his treatment of Russia gave 
the conscience and business sense of England a noble example of calm- 
ness, and Gladstone was surrounded by as much bellicose talk as ever 
annoyed a British statesman. 

It is hard to say whether the Tory party has always wanted war be- 
cause Gladstone was a man of peace, or has always hated Mr. Glad- 
stone because it wanted war for the sake of seeming to be patriotic and 
thoroughly British. 

There is no doubt that Gladstone was a man of large sentiment, 
and that John Bull is not particularly sentimental except in minor 
matters. Disraeli could not hesitate with reference to what ought to 
be done in view of the Bulgarian atrocities, for Toryism did not believe 
much in atrocities that would annoy its Administration, and Disraeli 
could not vacillate. He was cock-sure, as Toryism is always cock-sure 
of what is to be done. The few phrases of his with regard to an 
Imperial policy might have lifted Tory England to her feet in antag- 
onism to some people who would fain keep their own territory and 
maintain their own Government, but Toryism would never lavish a 
taking phrase in the name of humanity. Inhumanity never vacillates; 
it goes at things with a bludgeon. It is a remarkable fact that nothing 
else hits the rabble on the street and tickles the fancy of one of those 
relics of feudalism safe in his castle, so certainly as opposition to a 
foreign policy conceived by a man of peace. When convictions and 
ideas are the basis of a man's action, he may be supposed to hesitate 
and to consider, as did Mr. Gladstone. When he believes in persua- 
sion and is such a master of debate as was Gladstone, he is perhaps 
likely to argue too long and to seek to win over a foe while the foe is 
preparing to deal him a death-blow. But the error in this direction 
is certainly less ignoble than the error in the other direction. Glad- 
stone's powerful personality had stood for peace and for ideas. He 
had undertaken the enterprise of Government with the faith that men 
must be reasoned with and persuaded from wrong causes to right causes. 
Whenever any nation in weakness has looked toward England's 



EGYPT AND DEFEAT. 



321 



strength, it has believed also that, with Mr. Gladstone at the helm, Eng- 
land could be reasoned with, and perhaps persuaded. No small nation 
has ever thought that her Toryism had any such qualities. So long as 
Gladstone held sway it was evident that his remarkable abilities, his 
regard for the opinions of others, and his high personal character, as 
well as his confidence in Christian principles, made it possible to accept 
justly from the nation of which he was a single citizen, some such rea- 
sonable adjustment of difficulties just arisen as would postpone and 
perhaps nullify the barbarism of war. Mr. Gladstone always believed 
in and practiced the noble art of educating his party. Of course, he 
influenced his party by the impetuosity of his eloquence and the rich- 
ness of his imagination, and he added to the impulse and im- 
aginativeness of the English people. But he did not train them to 
yield to the impulse for contention, nor to imagine reasons for strife 
where none existed. A "vigorous foreign policy" is not Gladstone's 
phrase, and taken alone, it is a very silly phrase from any one. A rea- 
sonable foreign policy is much nobler, even though such a policy 
should pause and reflect and argue and seek to persuade one moment 
too long, in a given case. An unreasoning man — that is, a man who 
is not open to anything which may change his opinion — is always sure 
that the reasoning man is fickle and incompetent; and a soul able 
to poise and consider, as was the soul of Gladstone, is very certain to be 
accused of procrastination. 

Gladstone's policy in Egypt was not "vigorous.*' either in the direc- 
tion of annexation or in the direction of a protectorate. He had 
already asserted that he would be true to the Liberal opinion of Eng- 
land in 1880, that he understood the principles on which that victory 
was won, and that victory did not contemplate a Tory program. To 
assume supreme authority in Egypt was not what Gladstone's con- 
science or intellect meant to do. The Beaconsfield ministry had been 
condemned. Whenever Gladstone has failed to follow out a Tory 
policy with reference to a foreign country, as he did in this case, he 
has been called a man indifferent to the honor of the British Empire. 
"The honor of the British Empire" is a phrase, and a poor phrase, in 
a case like this. The Disraeli Government was dishonorable to the 
21 



322 GLADSTONE: A BIOGRAPHICAL STUDY. 

ideals of the English nation worthiest of English loyalty and devotion. 
Still more, when he was leader in the House of Commons in 1877, he 
offered resolutions upon the action of the Government relative to Tur- 
key. He wished to avert the war which Beaconsfield'was fomenting. 
Great Britain and Russia, however, could not discipline or advise Tur- 
key successfully. But Gladstone was anxious that the trial should be 
made. He was therefore not to be condemned because, afterwards, 
when a war broke out, he could not follow up that war with his per- 
sonal enthusiasm. It may seem like a plea for Sunday-school politics, — 
but, after all, Sunday-school politics have civilized most of the planet, — 
if we say that Mr. Gladstone had been a Christian and believed that the 
blessings of peace are greater than the triumphs of war. Extension of 
territory for the sake of Imperial England is not commending itself 
to the greatest or best of English thinkers. Annexation is not a 
victory for civilization in every case. Gladstone's relations to 
Egyptian affairs had been imposed upon him by inheritance, and by 
the fact that then there was no different policy which would not have 
wrought greater disaster. No Englishman in 1886 could say that he 
was particularly proud of the fact that England had meddled with 
Egyptian affairs. But England demanded that Gladstone should do 
something. He adopted a policy in the face of the fact that another 
policy would have abolished the liberty of Egypt, and that it would 
have imperiled England's advance in the Indian Empire. There is no 
question that Gordon's personality, chivalrous, saintly, heroic, gave 
Mr. Gladstone's good name a more serious difficulty out of which it 
should come unscathed, than if he had been less knightly and beloved. 
One must ask what would have been the case if a more practicable and 
less romantic nature had entered into the service of the Government, 
before Gladstone is condemned in a wholesale manner. It is doubtful 
if even Gladstone's imagination might have anticipated the difficulties 
which Gordon's own genius created. Surely the expedition into the 
Soudan by General Hicks was not very wise, and Gladstone was not 
responsible for it. The trap into which Gordon walked was made 
certainly not less fatal by his own peculiarities of nature. He ought 



EGYPT AND DEFEAT. 



323 



perhaps never to have been sent on the mission. The garrisons could 
have made their own adjustments as well as he, and they could have 
made them better than he, who, as the most fascinating and admired 
figure of the moment, was offered as the one who ought to go, largely 
because the excitement of party feeling had been lifted to that point 
by an unpatriotic opposition to the ministry. Here was Mr. Glad- 
stone's mistake. He yielded to public opinion in London, and it seems 
almost as theatrical a thing as Lord Beaconsfield could have done. It 
was a moment in which the most unscrupulous lovers of money slipped 
into partnership with unselfish chivalry, and the sacrifice was made. 
Here Mr. Gladstone was working for peace. He might have stepped 
down from office rather than agree to the shout of London: "Send 
Gordon!" But then it would have been to let in upon the Parliament 
a party whose policy was opposed to the every truest interest, both of 
England at home and Egypt abroad. There is no real reason why Eng- 
land should consider some of her own citizens unpatriotic and Ameri- 
cans Anglophobists because it appears to them that she is not created 
by destiny or Providence to dictate to all the world. Gladstone's idea 
of what constitutes a great nation will never be satisfactory to those 
who believe that British sovereignty ought to grow by extension of 
territory. And it was with these ideas in mind that a large number of 
Nonconformists, who had been exiled from him, gave Mr. Gladstone 
their unswerving support in his later dealings with Russia. 

Never had a man worked more definitely and self-sacrificingly for 
honorable peace. This was the refrain in all he said: 

"War for a bad cause has this apology, that the bad cause may in 
good faith be mistaken for a good one; and in this case it is preferable 
to a war for no cause at all. The blind fanaticism which calls evil good 
and good evil, and which includes something besides self in the scope of 
its desire, is less ignoble than the cynical indifference which accepts war 
and all its horrors without watching or caring how lie the weights in 
the scale of justice. Men talk as if we were free to fight, as a Scotch lord 
would fight in Edinburgh three centuries ago for the centre of the cause- 
way; or as a boy fought at Eton in my time to determine whether he 
could or could not 'lick' another boy; or as in Ireland, at a fair, shillelahs 
were flourished, and heads cruelly mauled and broken, for the simple 



324 GLADSTONE: A BIOGRAPHICAL STUDY. 

preference of one name to another; or for the pleasure of that excitement 
which fighting brings. If we are to revive, in the present daylight, the 
levities of childhood, the manners of a semi-barbarous age, or the ex- 
cesses pardonable in an over-driven people, it is high time to take heed 
and make some inquiry concerning the paths of honour and of shame. 
A war undertaken without cause is a war of shame and not of honour." 

Thus and thus only did he look with hope on England's future. 

Gladstone's Government was now trembling under the shock of the 
repeated attacks made by the Opposition from points of view which 
these facts supplied them. On the 13th of December, 1882, however, 
his house was opened, and friends, postmen and telegraph messengers 
brought countless messages while he was celebrating the fact that, fifty 
years before, on that day, he had entered Parliament. 

In the course of the year 1883 his health was seriously affected, but 
a month or so at Cannes, and the delight of having his family and books 
about him at Hawarden Castle reinvigorated the old statesman, and 
he was soon back in Parliament, introducing an Affirmation Bill which 
was aimed at settling the Bradlaugh controversy. In this debate he ut- 
tered eloquence which for brilliancy and force was not surpassed by any 
effort of his life. The Bill failed, and he turned his attention to the 
Agricultural Bill and the Corrupt Practices Bill. He advocated a 
Franchise Act* which gave the counties Household Suffrage, and a new 
law for the redistribution of seats in ParHament. But the fate of his 
Government was decided. On the proposal of the Budget he was 
defeated, and while the streets of London were still echoing the words: 
"Bradlaugh and Gordon," Mr. Salisbury was made Prime Minister of 
England. 



*Mr. James Russell Lowell talked with him at this time on the 
Franchise Bill, and congratulated him that he had included Ireland. He 
said to Lowell: 'T had rather the heart were torn out of my breast than 
that clause out of the Bill." 



CHAPTER XXXVIII. 
CALLED AGAIN TO POWER. 

It was evident in the early autumn that England was again disap- 
pointed with Toryism. The battle was now on and speakers were dis- 
coursing everywhere in the Kingdom. It was clear to all Englishmen 
when Parliament was prorogued August 14th, that any appeal to the 
country would cause widespread enthusiasm and profound interest on 
both sides. Mr. Gladstone's manifesto was an address characteristic of 
his spirit and its increasing intensity of conviction, and Midlothian was 
asked again to help him to "maintain the supremacy of the Crown, the 
unity of the Empire, and all the authority necessary for the conserva- 
tion of that unity." He trusted that the Electors believed with him 
that this was "the first duty of every representative of the people." 
There was one sentence in his manifesto charged with unsuspected 
and irrepressible significance. He said: "Subject to this governing 
principle, every grant to portions of the country of enlarged powers 
for the management of their own affairs, is, in my view, not a source of 
danger, but a means of averting it, and in the nature of a new guaran- 
tee for increased cohesive happiness and strength!" 

Scotland had been Gladstonian, but it must not be supposed that 
all Scotch people were pleased now. Principal Tulloch's biographer, 
writing of that time, says: 

"In the Highlands there was nothing to be heard of but Mr. Glad- 
stone's triumphal progress, and the fictitious devotion of the people every- 
where. That such a cheap enthusiasm should make the Queen 'less care- 
ful of the notice and applause of the multitudes' was what the Principal 
feared; while he was himself much irritated and annoyed to hear that the 
Premier, who encouraged and accepted these demonstrations *as never 
Premier did before,' had, contrary to his pledge not to hear one side 
without hearing the other, received a deputation from the Disestablish- 
ment party. Tt was mean of him,' says the disgusted champion of the 

325 



326 GLADSTONE: A BIOGRAPHICAL STUDY. 

Church, who thought the quasi royal progress 'very vulgar-minded/ as 
well as in very bad taste. When he was brought into direct contact with 
the hero of these ovations some days later, his commentary was no doubt 
sharpened by these causes of offense." 

"September 17. 

"The weather is perfectly lovely here today, and Mr. Gladstone has 

been planting a tree — not cutting one down. It is really amusing the kind 

of incense offered to him. It does not excite respect, although I dare say it 

is genuine. I had a talk with him last night, and this morning I had the 

amusement of sitting next Mrs. , who can hardly say a dozen words 

without introducing his name. There is really an absurd simplicity or 
want of humor about it. 'He is so simple,' this is the 'noble feature of 
his character.' Sancta simplicitas! is all one can say. If he is simple^ 
who is double? But, really, I must not mock." 

In December, some one, who did achieve the feat at least of getting 
a hearing, little knowing the mischief he did, or else calculating 
shrewdly to create an excitement in which it was impossible for most 
people to think clearly, published a paragraph, over no name, announc- 
ing that Gladstone was ready to deal with the demand of the Irish for 
Home Rule in a liberal spirit, should he be returned to power. 

The manifesto to which reference has already been made contained 
also this passage: "History will consign the name of every man who, 
having it in his power, does not aid or prevent or retard an equitable 
sentiment between Ireland and Great Britain." 

Gladstone's enemies and Gladstone's friends pointed to this state- 
ment, and his foes cried out immediately that the Grand Old Man had 
adopted the policy of Home Rule for Ireland, and must henceforth be 
regarded as its champion. A volley of questions was poured upon Mr. 
Gladstone's head, to which he gave no answer. He was sure of his own 
position; when the right time came there would be no question as to 
his plan and the method by which he expected to defend it. The Tory 
Government felt the ground-swell beneath it. Their representatives 
were horrified and many good people feared that the downfall of the 
British Empire was imminent. Such sane and progressive men as John 
Morley were full of hope that a career so splendid and prophetic as 
Gladstone's would crown itself by giving Ireland a just government. 



CALLED AGAIN TO POWER. 327 

The air was full of rumors. It was believed by many that Lord 
Beaconsfield's wily successor, Lord Salisbury, had shrewdly arranged 
things with the Irish National party. It was believed by another large 
section that the Parnellites were for Gladstone and his program. Glad- 
stone's speech at Edinburgh made it clear that he believed that a ma- 
jority must be returned great enough to get on without the Irish vote, 
else the Irish question could not be properly treated. It is true that 
the Irish National League called upon all Irishmen to vote for the 
Tories. Parnell was in a strange position, and the Irish National Party 
was in Salisbury's hands, when Gladstone was elected by a tremendous 
majority. Meantime the Irish began to understand Gladstone, and the 
Irish Nationalists saw that their hope was with the Liberal party. Later 
on it was seen that the Liberal party itself, to which they had come, was 
disunited and feeble. 

In January, it was no longer possible, with what was no doubt a 
complete Liberal triumph, for the Tory Government to stand; the 
Queen sent for Mr. Gladstone to come to Osborne, and he was there 
made Prime Minister of England again. He had hardly been, as it was 
in this case, for the third time, called to this position of authority, until 
many of his friends and companions in office declared that if they under- 
stood his policy, they could have none of him. Only the three hundred 
that lapped, as in old Israel, stayed with Gideon. 

It seems strange to an American student of English public opinion 
and its development, and especially to those acquainted with the vital 
quality of Mr. Gladstone's mind and his unwavering faith that no sub- 
ject is truly within the limits of political discussion, and especially of 
political action, until the people are educated upon that subject, that 
there should have been horror of his past conduct on the Home Rule 
question expressed on the part of men like Lord Hartington, Lord 
Derby, and Lord Selbourne. It is no less remarkable that any one 
should have been unduly excited when Gladstone announced that five 
years' study had brought him to look with favor upon the project of 
Home Rule in Ireland, and that he believed the topic had at last come 
into the realm of political discussion, if not of political action. 



328 GLADSTONE: A BIOGRAPHICAL STUDY. 

We have tried in this biography to sketch the causes which operated 
upon this receptive and excursive intellect to produce this conviction. 
He and his idea were not even yet out of the woods, as we say. Glad- 
stone was not now able to see quite clearly how the Imperial Parliament 
and its ultimate control of questions could be maintained while Ireland 
conducted her own business. He was not even sure that Ireland de- 
manded Home Rule, and especially he doubted that the noisiest of her 
citizens represented the great majority of her people. Certainly the 
new popular suffrage which had been active since the Reform Bill of 
1884 had broadened the sense of responsibility among Irishmen, and 
it had not indicated, as yet, that Home Rule was the thing that the 
majority of the intelligent and self respectful Irish people wanted. Now, 
however, things took a turn, and Ireland had declared unequivocally. 
It is impossible for us to share in any other feeling than that of admira- 
tion for an English statesman who so carefully and patiently as Glad- 
stone had walked with the people, and set popular government so se- 
curely upon its broad base as to make it the utterance and embodiment 
of popular demands. Gladstone's ideas of the necessity for generous 
education of the people made it incumbent upon him to make them in- 
telligent, especially on such an important matter as this, and surely, 
from time to time, in his treatment of Ireland, he had inspired and 
guided the English conscience and brain to deal justly with this subject. 
Perhaps it was true that his own eager and deeply moved intelligence 
and moral sense had outrun those of the public. Never until this mo- 
ment did his prophetic vision deem it possible for Home Rule to be 
anything but a failure in Ireland; now he thought England and Ireland 
capable of making such a project valuable and victorious: It was the 
highest act of statesmanship, which is faith. 

In the year 1886 the British public was offered the pamphlet of 
Mr. Gladstone called 'The History of an Idea." It was very like the 
address which he issued in the course of his labors for the disestablish- 
ment of the Irish Church, and it gives testimony to what we have been 
trying to indicate all along — the fact that in dealing with Mr. Gladstone, 
one is having to do with an almost unmatched congeries of vital pro- 
cesses, — a restless, plastic mind, never regarding any avenue of thought, 



CALLED AGAIN TO POWER. 329 

except perhaps the one that led and yet leads churchwards, as perma- 
nently closed to human entrance, never believing that the last word has 
been spoken upon any great question, never failing in hope for the 
federation and complete sovereignty of all just and comprehensive ideas. 
Less daring intelligences, and consciences less vitality related to his 
abundant faith in man might well fail. 

Here Gladstone lost from his side two able men. The one was Mr. 
Joseph Chamberlain, and the other, Mr. John Bright. Perhaps he 
cared less for the fact that he was forsaken in this moment by Lord 
Northbrooke, Lord Carlingford, and Sir George Trevelyan. 

It was a great moment in the history of one powerful man's faith in 
the ability of weaker men to enter into the processes and triumph of 
civilization by way of self-government, when this once haughty Tory 
rose, and breathless interest centered on an old man radiant with the 
fadeless youth of his principles, and Mr. Gladstone had offered his Bill 
for the Government of Ireland, and the Bill for making purchase of the 
lands and improvements from the Irish landlords. It was the signal for 
a declaration of hostihties against him and his policy by thousands of 
Liberals of every degree of talent and influence. Away went a large 
Liberal vote, and there came to him what he was never quite able to 
control — the Irish vote. One hundred years before, on another April 
day, in America, men "fired the shot heard round the world," attesting 
the fact that a revolution against the idea of taxation without repre- 
sentation had been inaugurated. Here was no revolutionist, but an 
evolutionist as practical as Darwin was philosophical, uttering calmly 
a word heard also round the world, and, swordless but firm, Glad- 
stone stood fast by the same principle which had guarded our fore- 
fathers. 

It was impossible for Gladstone to deal with any topic without pas- 
sionateness of devotion and the completest manifestation of inner loyalty 
to its aims manifesting itself in every act, especially in his industry and 
eloquence. This intensity can never be understood by people who have 
no intensity. 

Every element of his nature which had received the precious pre- 
cipitate of experience from long years of debate, every sensibility of 



330 GLADSTONE: A BIOGRAPHICAL STUDY. 

spirit which had been played upon and made vibrant hy a thousand 
winds from the decades of controversy, every reach of imagination 
which had been enlarged by the fact that he had witnessed the dawn 
of an ever-increasing day for the people, every force of his genius which 
had been trained to suppleness and potency in serving causes which had 
first come to him begging upon their knees and left him crowned with 
sovereign triumph, seemed now to rise refreshed from long dwelling 
in his soul and to engage again with a domination almost superhuman, 
as he laid upon the altar of constitutional government and freedom the 
remaining years of his illustrious career. 

He had fought in every part of the field. At the beginning of 1886 
Mr. Gladstone again gave his mind a holiday, by entering into a long 
controversy involving enormous learning and great dialectical skill, 
as well as those resources of debate of which he was the easy master, 
meeting such antagonists as Professor Max Miiller, Mr. Huxley and 
Dr. Albert Reville. Each of these men wrote from his quiet study; and 
he had no Irish question or any of the other half-dozen great questions 
which beset Mr. Gladstone, to deal with. His versatility of mind is 
illustrated in the fact that on the very day upon which he received the 
"Nineteenth Century" containing his article entitled "Proem to Gen- 
esis; a Plea for a Fair Trial," he began to write upon, as the only man 
in England who could adequately discuss Sir Henry Thring's 
"Thoughts of Imperial Federation," and Barry O'Brien's "Federal 
Union with Ireland." Mr. Gladstone had kept his craft alive where 
many seas have met. 

Serious opposition was organizing itself against Home Rule. Mr. 
Gladstone was being quoted as a false man. His old phrases were con- 
jured up and he had to again explain the fragment of an old speech — 
"so that with fatal precision the steps of crime dogged the footsteps of 
the Land League." Gladstone was accused of a desire to create the 
Irish Parliament, because he had found out that England regarded Irish 
members in the House of Commons as a nuisance and that therefore 
relief ought to be afforded, even if a grave danger were encountered. 
Even those who agreed so far with Gladstone as to admit that some 
kind of Home Rule would be the best thing for Ireland, now animad- 



CALLED AGAIN TO POWER. 



331 



verted upon Gladstone's ability or willingness to fulfill Liberal princi- 
ples, "and to permit the majority of the Nobodies of Ireland to govern 
themselves." No doubt there was an honest fear that, if Home Rule 
w^ere granted, loyal men in Ireland would be exposed to the Irish wrath 
which had been bottled up for centuries, and outrages and murder 
would be rampant on every hand. Wise friends of Mr. Gladstone fell 
from his side, because they held it was impossible for him to say that 
absolute protection for the loyalists would be made a condition pre- 
cedent to Home Rule. England feared the use of cruelty — the very 
weapon which England had so long used against Ireland. Thoughtful 
men knew that no single act of Parliament could abolish the memory 
of ages of misgovernment in that Island, even if these thoughtful men 
did not sympathize with Mr. Shaw-Lefevre when he called the Parnell 
movement "a shameful, audacious and gigantic act of robbery." No 
doubt Gladstone was confronted with the misgivings of men he re- 
spected deeply. He knew justice must be done to Ireland, yet he knew, 
and he was to know still more certainly, in the future, that a nation once 
so long under the heel of wrong as Ireland had been could hardly avoid 
an outburst of plundering, cruelty and revenge. The last five years 
had taught him as much. What guarantees could he give? Here were 
a lot of Irishmen who had done faithful service in enforcing the laws of 
the Realm — they were law^s of the Realm even if they had been bad 
laws — and now they saw themselves about to be handed over to the 
ruffiians they had controlled — to men against whom England could not 
protect them. Large investments had been made by Englishmen in 
Ireland, and if these men were turned out or persecuted, they would 
have the right to have pecuniary relief. The awful lesson of the Phoenix 
Park murders had compelled Parliament to pass the Crimes Act, but 
the crime had gone before, and the victims could not be reached. The 
Land League always had the appearance of a base conspiracy to a large 
section of English people. Terrorism in Ireland had been too closely 
associated with some of the men most anxious for Home Rule, for 
many voters to forget that with an Irish Parliament criminals might be 
holding the lives and property of loyalists in hands bloody already. 
"For five vears," said Arnold-Forster, "Gladstone held Parliament in 



332 



GLADSTONE: A BIOGRAPHICAL STUDY. 



the hollow of his hand and he gave no single word of encouragement 
or hope to the sorely tried loyaHsts of Ireland." Of course this was not 
true, but many a man believed it. 

The Irish of the Molly Maguire and Tammany Hall were offered as 
evidence that no good could come out of Ireland. Such men as James 
Bryce, while sharing none of these opinions, looked upon the situation 
more calmly. 

Yet Bryce insisted that "no scheme of Home Rule or local self-gov- 
ernment is admissible which would leave the landowners at the mercy 
of Irish elective bodies, and that no such scheme as aforesaid is ad- 
missible which does not recognize and provide for the case of the 
Ulster Protestants." Although he admitted the fact that these proposi- 
tions might suggest more difficulties than they saw, he would not 
despond, least of all would he believe that democracy "at which it is 
now fashionable to rail, is the cause of present perplexities, for," he 
added, "these were as great under the oHgarchy before 1832, and during 
the period of middle class rule that followed." 

He had a word to say, however, to the Nationalists, and it was this: 

"It is to be hoped that the Nationalists in Ireland and America will 
not mistake this spirit, which has borne many provocations quietly, for 
a want of firmness or of courage. If they do, they will be fatally mis- 
taken. England will yield nothing to menace; but she is strong enough 
to be magnanimous. Recognizing the novelty of the present situation, 
recollecting the lamentable errors of the past, contrasting her own peace 
and prosperity with the miseries of distracted Ireland, she is prepared to 
give a calm and patient consideration to any and every scheme which 
offers a prospect of alleviating those miseries and of creat^ing a better 
feeling between peoples whom nature meant to be friends, and whose 
friendship is essential to the welfare and the greatness of her empire." 

William Ewart Gladstone had brought men of this quality, at least, 
to speak calmly, and honestly consider his plans for Ireland. 



CHAPTER XXXIX. 

TRIED AND FAITHFUL. 

It was sufficient to discourage confidence in popular government 
through representation to behold the violence with which Gladstone's 
foes treated his presence and conduct in the House of Commons at this 
time. Perhaps Mr. Gladstone never met so angry and vociferant an 
opposition as he met in the new Parliament of 1874 on the i8th of May. 
The Conservative party seemed to remember the former glory and the 
height of popularity from which this Lucifer had fallen, and now they 
were having their jubilee. Disraeli then looked upon the noisy and 
excited mob as if felicitating himself upon the fact that it was the hour 
of his triumph and that of his rival's humiliation. This was the time 
when Gladstone received nothing else than discourtesy and even malig- 
nant treatment whenever he arose to speak. The habit of his enemies 
grew more fierce as the years went on from 1874 to 1880. The Conserva- 
tives kept reminding him that he was not only out of office, but he was 
not even the leader of the Liberals whom they affected to despise. Fur- 
ther, they insisted, he continually kept coming and going like a jack in 
a box, at one time retiring entirely out of sight and leaving notice that 
he was not at all responsible for Liberal leadership, then popping up 
and intimating by some flash of genius that nobody else could lead 
the Liberal party. He was attacked by one member of Parliament as a 
man who was guilty of almost every improper and unworthy method 
of gaining power, and, at this, the Conservatives went wild with rejoic- 
ing. No wonder that Gladstone in 1882 had done all he could to make 
this disorder impossible of repetition. He said himself that they had 
come upon a condition of affairs which "struck a fatal blow at the lib- 
erties of debate and the dignity of Parliament." Certain it is that at 
the time we are now considering, May, 1885, it was almost impossible 
for Gladstone to rise in his place and to begin to speak without being 

333 



334 GLADSTONE: A BIOGRAPHICAL STUDY. 

met by noises of every sort and especially by groans. Perhaps it is 
true that Mr. Gladstone himself had met more serions opposition 
amounting to personal antagonism when on the 7th of May, 1877, he 
proposed to offer his resolutions on the Eastern Question. For more 
than one and one-half hours he stood, as Beecher had stood at Liver- 
pool in the course of our civil war, before a mob of English Conserva- 
tive Members of the House of Commons, but he conquered them. 

While Gladstone was waiting for England to make up her mind 
what she would have him do, he published alongside with these articles 
and others which had to do with Welsh Disestablishment, Radicalism 
and Socialism, Moderate Liberalism and immoderate Liberalism, Turk- 
ish and Land questions, an essay on "Dawn of Creation and of Wor- 
ship," which was written as though there could be no tumult in earth 
or heaven, and he fought out his controversy as though the only serious 
question on a planet like this was the origin of religious activity in the 
form of worship on the part of man. The mobility and largeness of Mr. 
Gladstone's mind, its passion for utterance, and its love of disputation 
are nowhere more remarkably exhibited than in an article such as this. 
Without doubt, the advice of Lyman Beecher to a young man who 
had been told not to put too many irons in the fire, in which the excel- 
lent minister said to him, "put all your irons in, tongs, shovel and 
everything else," had in some form come to Mr. Gladstone and had 
been adopted in early Hfe; and the result was that he always had a hot 
iron on hand and did not get weary, as many do, of having to use one 
burning instrument. Here is the same wealth of information and full- 
ness of statement associated with the same tendency to verbose state- 
ment and reiteration of ideas which was. characteristic of nearly every- 
thing he did, either in oratory or in letters, when his mind was not 
poised with the thought of his guardianship and championship of con- 
victions important for the immediate destiny of nations and men. He 
thus refreshed himself and then re-entered the debate to prove the 
untruth, at least in one instance, of Pulteney's remark to Walpole: 
"Political parties are like snakes, which are not moved by their heads, 
but by their tails." Here truly the head was leading. 



CHAPTER XL. 
THE AGED WARRIOR. 

Gladstone was now an old man, and yet one of the youngest old 
men the world has ever seen. The courage which in earlier years had 
never forsaken him was now alert and open-eyed and true. The amaz- 
ing information which three-quarters of a century had brought to him 
appeared to be arranged for this special conflict. The quick eyes which 
had not then begun to lose their pristine brilliancy, — if indeed, like the 
sightless eyes of Milton, Gladstone's fading eyes did not to the last 
seem to be radiant and penetrating, — flashed their morning-tide upon 
the dark phases of this angry subject. The conviction of the righteous- 
ness of his matured plan, which had at least none of the acidity of un- 
ripeness in it, but had rather grow^n mellow and rich as he had consid- 
ered and developed It, now satisfied the hunger of his moral nature. 
He believed in it at the center of his being, and in the full possession 
of his superb energies of mind and spirit, he threw aside all "judicious 
mixtures," all thoughts that intimidation could be a just or wise method 
of civilizing human beings, and entered his consummating work with 
a fresh and buoyant hope. The Tory Government had gone out. He 
did not want anybody to come over to his side with such rapidity as 
would prevent his bringing his intellect and conscience along with him. 
He had long ago said to those who were likely to be rash: 'T would tell 
them of my own intention to keep my own counsel, and reserve my own 
freedom, until I see an occasion when there may be a prospect of public 
benefit in endeavoring to make a movement forward; and I will ven- 
ture to recommend them, as an old Parliamentary hand, to do the 
same." This slow and steady pace he never forsook, until he was 
compelled to march with the speed of his ideas rushing to their accom- 
plishment. 

A new party came under the leadership of Lord Hartington and 

335 



336 GLADSTONE: A BIOGRAPHICAL STUDY. 

Mr. Chamberlain. This party was composed of the Whigs and Radicals 
who went in with the Tories. Gigantic was the opposition. All Eng- 
land was astir, and London had only a single voice in the morning and 
a single voice in the evening which did not join in the chorus of the 
newspapers against Gladstone. He could still grow; his power to rea- 
son even with an antagonist never vanished. No doubt Gladstone was 
badly advised with regard to his hope that the Home Rule bill would 
pass at its second reading in the House of Commons. No doubt he 
was misled with- reference to the amount of horror England conceived 
at the idea that cut-throats and knaves would hold office in Ireland if the 
Home Rule bill prevailed. No doubt he overestimated the Irishman's 
willingness to be orderly, even under the best auspices. It is question- 
able if the intense and progressive spirit of Gladstone seriously missed 
the slow-going and lethargic Lord Hartington, but it was impossible for 
Gladstone not to feel keenly the secession of Joseph Chamberlain. The 
latter had come into the Government as the President of the Board of 
Trade. He certainly had read Mr. Gladstone's address to the Electors 
of Midlothian in which he said: "The hope and purpose of the new 
Government in taking office was to examine carefully whether it is 
not practicable to try some method of meeting the present case of 
Ireland, and ministering to its wants, more safe and more effectual, 
going nearer to the source and seat of the mischief, and offering more 
promise of stability, than the method of separate and restrictive crim- 
inal legislation." One man was sure to be missed, — for William Edward 
Forster had recently died. Gladstone could not be indifferent to the 
lessons to be learned from the life of Forster and his effort at adminis- 
tration in Ireland. 

Gladstone was not a man who could have been bewildered into a 
false conception as to the strength of his position with the English 
people, by the fact that he had been so warmly received when he in- 
troduced the Bill. Before this he had heard cheers for him which shook 
the House of Commons, but he had never had such an enthusiastic 
greeting from the tumultuous crowd who followed Mr. Parnell and the 
somewhat miscellaneous company of Radicals from whom the man from 
Oxford had rarely received anything but admiration for his talents and 



THE AGED WARRIOR. 337 

sneers for his earlier political respectability. For three hours and a half 
in the course of a speech in which every element of his nature con- 
tributed its special strength and glory to his eloquence, he had had 
the chance of feeling and studying England's mind and heart in the 
House of Commons. It was a speech containing less of that meta- 
physical quality which often had w^earied his friends by adding dis- 
tinction to distinction and laying him open to the charge of disin- 
genuousness, than any other speech he had made on any other equally 
important subject. It was not unusually oratorical, for this master of 
the art — indeed, here he mastered it — and it was not all rhetorical, 
which has been said to be the defect in Mr. Gladstone's manner and 
method as a public speaker. There was nothing of the Oxford schol- 
asticism in the way in which he spoke to the House of Commons on 
that occasion, while yet his frame trembled with the excitement which 
he had caught from the vast and tumultuous crowds in the street. Surely 
no expressed admiration — and nobody in the House failed to pay 
him the highest tribute when he concluded his speech — no congratula- 
tions even from his opponents had won him away from that clear- 
sightedness which gave him to understand that a long and terrible con- 
flict lay before him and the ideas he had uttered. But it is true that 
so certain were some of his closest friends of defeat, on the day of di- 
vision, that they began to console him soon wdth the hope that they 
could at least appeal again to the country. Mr. Russell tells us that 
some devotee went so far as to agree to move the vote of confidence 
on general grounds, wuth the idea that "this would be supported by 
many who could not vote for the Home Rule bill." It w^as true, the 
defeat was imminent. All this eloquence and wisdom, statesmanship 
and humanity, hopes and fears commingled, went down before the 
vote, when, on June 8th, a majority of thirty rejected the bill. Mr. 
Gladstone had not educated his public, and the public was not ready for 
so complex a measure. In love of humanity, he had outrun Peter to the 
sepulchre. His ideal was not dead. Abroad in the world, it would some 
day be recognized. He could wait. The Irish Nationalists alone were 
fairly pleased with the scheme, because it was a scheme in their general 
direction. Mr. Parnell from the first did not like the idea that Ireland 
22 



338 GLADSTONE: A BIOGRAPHICAL STUDY. 

would not be represented at "Westminster, and England did not like 
the idea that Ireland would have a Parliament of her own. 

Long ago Mr. Gladstone's plan of Home Rule has become so 
familiar to American readers that it is only necessary here to say that 
the measure for the buying-out of the Irish landlords, which came along 
with the Home Rule bill, offended those who wanted not to sell and 
those who wanted not to buy; and England, Scotland and Wales, with 
their large Irish populations, joined with the Roman Catholics in the 
demand that some Irishmen should represent them in the Imperial 
Parliament at London. 

Mr. Chamberlain's opposition was directed against Gladstone, be- 
cause of the land scheme. Perhaps it will always be thought that 
Mr. Chamberlain would have felt better about things if his own scheme 
of Home Rule had been adopted. Certain it is that he has been a 
severe critic and a powerful antagonist to a man who put into his 
scheme what Chamberlain's scheme did not possess, — recognition of 
Ireland's nationality. Gladstone's poetic mind had clearly appreciated 
the genius of the Irish people. 

Lowell, however, wrote to his friend Norton (See Letters of James 
Russell Lowell, Copyright, by Harper's, from which this extract is taken 
by permission:) 

"The political situation continues to be interesting, and opinion about 
the fate of Mr. Gladstone's bill varies from hour to hour. I for a good 
while thought the second reading would be carried by a small majority, 
but believe now that it will be defeated. I hear that Mr. Gladstone said to 
the Duke of Argyll : T hoped in my old age to save my country, but this is 
a bitter, humiliating disappointment.' The fate of second reading de- 
pends somewhat upon the fear of a dissolution of Parliament, but the 
general opinion now is that the Government, if defeated, will dissolve. I 
asked Mr. Chamberlain day before yesterday if he thought the G. O. M. 
was angry enough to dissolve, and he said yes. I met Mr. Gladstone 
a few days ago, and he looked as gay as a boy on his way home from 
school. From what I hear, I am inclined to think that what is called Irish 
public opinion in favor of Home Rule is nearly as factitious as that of 
our American meetings and resolutions." 



THE AGED WARRIOR. 339 

And he wrote again: 

"From Osterley I went to Holmbury (Leveson Gower's), where I 
spent a couple of days very pleasantly with Mr. and Mrs. Gladstone and 
other guests. Mr. Gladstone was in boyish spirits. He told me, among 
other things, that 'in the whole course of his political experience he had 
never seen anything like the general enthusiasm of the country for Home 
Rule in Ireland.' I asked slyly 'if it was not possible that a part at least, 
of this enthusiasm might be for the Prime Minister?' 'Oh, no, no, not a bit 
of it!' he answered with eager emphasis. And I am inclined to think 
he persuaded himself for the moment. This is one secret of his power 
as a speaker, that he is capable of improvising convictions. He left us 
to go down to Scotland, and I couldn't help remembermg that I first 
met him at a dinner at Lord Ripon's, in March, '80, when he was on the 
eve of starting for Midlothian on his first Scottish campaign. He was 
very confident, and the result justified him. Perhaps it will again, though 
the general opinion (as one hears it) is the other way. But I still think 
the people strongly with him." 

Later Lowell, who had perhaps lost some of his vision in later 
years, wrote: 

"It amuses me to see the Grand Old Man using the same arguments 
against this bill that I vainly urged against 'his' bill five years ago. 
You know that I am 'principled agin' indulging in prophecy, but I 
made one at that time which has been curiously verified. I used to ask, 
'Suppose the Irish nation should strike, what are you going to do about 
it?' They have struck, and I am still at a loss. I am glad to see that 
their tone over here is much more moderate than it was. 'Studiously 
moderate,' you will say. But I think they begin to see the difificultios 
more clearly than they did. Meanwhile, the coercion policy is crowding 
the immigrant ships to this country, and we have already as many as we 
can digest at present. We are really interested in your Irish question in 
more ways than one. It is really we who have been paying the rents 
over there, for we have to pay higher wages for domestic service to meet 
the drain." 

John Bright's opposition had been the most serious met in the 
progress of the debate. Lords and dukes had no hearing with the peo- 
ple of England, for it was suspected that they were not particularly 
anxious for reforms which broadened the base of the pyramid of gov- 



340 GLADSTONE: A BIOGRAPHICAL STUDY. 

ernment. But John Bright had a hearing with that strong middle 
class who rule the realm. Besides, he was well known as a friend of 
Ireland. In season and out of season, he had labored for her honor 
and her well-being. The intemperate and often outrageous action on 
the part of the Irish leaders and misleaders had given him grave doubts 
as to the ability of the Irish people to use Home Rule save as a curse 
to England and to themselves, and no persuasions of his old friend, 
Gladstone, could lead him to revise the opinion that the Irish he cared 
for did not really want Home Rule. The Bill, as we have said, was 
defeated, and yet in the defeat it was evident that an ultimate triumph 
was sure to come. The Queen labored in vain to get Mr. Gladstone 
to remain in power, and on June 26th, Parliament was dissolved. An 
appeal was made to the country, and the Conservatives triumphed; but 
it was a kind of triumph in which Gladstone saw hope for the principle 
he had espoused. Things were in a hurly-burly, so far as parties and 
leaders and constituencies were concerned. Even the classes appeared 
seriously separated one from another. Drawing-rooms began to close 
their doors to Mr. Gladstone. Fierceness of controversy never went 
further in the history of British politics. Hate and rage strove with 
ignorance and passion to pour out vials of vituperation upon Mr. Glad- 
stone. He had hitherto born with equanimity and beheld with 
a smile the political cartoons which had represented him in the form of 
a bird, beast or denizen of the sea; he was now to be advertised from one 
end of the country to the other as an inhabitant of hell, and no abuse 
was too foul or insult too stinging for the Grand Old Man. Art — if the 
coarsest sort of malignant opposition may be said to produce anything 
like art — exhausted its resources in describing him as a being unfit for 
earth and hopeless of even the mercy of the God whom British aristo- 
crats talked of glibly as they turned the friends of Gladstone from their 
mansions. May 3d Lowell wrote home to America to this effect: 

"The editor of the 'Contemporary Review' has just gone out, having 
vainly endeavored (at the instigation of John Morley) to persuade me that 
I should be doing a public service by giving my views on Mr. Gladstone's 
Home Rule project in that periodical. But I prefer to keep clear of hot 
potatoes — and Irish ones are apt to be particularly hot. Prettly nearly Every- 
body who is Anybody here is furious — there is no word for it — and de- 



THE AGED WARRIOR. 341 

nounces the G. O. M. as a kind of baser Judas Iscariot, all the more con- 
temptible because he will be cheated of his thirty pieces. The Irish them- 
selves are beginning to feel the responsibility of governing Ireland, and Mr. 

has said that they should 'want an alien act to enable them to deal 

with those Irish-American scoundrels.' (This is confidential.) The 

'situation' is a very grave one, and everybody who isn't excited is de- 
pressed."* 

Through the whole of this fearful ordeal Mr. Gladstone walked 
erect, serious-minded, unmoved by the rancor of enemies or the adula- 
tion of his associates, sure-footed and certain that he was engaged in 
bringing without doubt a result worthy of the loftiest mind. 

Of course his enemies rejoiced to see the men of the Liberal party 
quarreling among themselves as to the bill, though Gladstone believed 
they differed only on details and not on the great principle involved. 
As he saw the spirit of intolerance directed against himself, he appreci- 
ated more strongly than ever what Ireland had suffered in the cen- 
turies of her humiliation. He saw how far injustice and unreason could 
go in a refusal to remedy the terror of suffering borne in the past, and 
to continue the course of conduct in England which simply solidi- 
fied the ignorance of England with respect to the whole Irish question 
and made it a weapon enforcing coercive measures which could never 
remedy Irish evils. No doubt the upper classes, so called, really believed 
that Gladstone was ready to destroy England's greatness, for the upper 
classes of England are notoriously ignorant. No doubt respectable 
bishops and well-fed ecclesiastics thought that this illustrious Protestant 
wished to uproot Protestantism in the British Isles, for churchmanship 
in England is not necessarily intelligent; it is only flavored with an- 
tiquity. No doubt England was ready to think that Gladstone had lost 
his ability as a financier, and was likely to lose his mind, for the 
English shop-keeper could never understand Gladstone's financial abil- 
ity, and he was not always proven an omniscient judge on the latter 
subject. 

Certain it is, that during the wdiole of that campaign, and for long 
afterwards, Gladstone's name was a name of execration and despite, 



* From the "Letters of James Russell Lowell," copyright. Harpers, 

N. Y. 



342 GLADSTONE: A BIOGRAPHICAL STUDY. 

whenever those who ought to have trusted him most, ventured to speak 
of him in pubHc. 

When the Tories came into power a most interesting and bumptious 
scion of the house of Marlborough leaped to the front, and, as in the 
Bradlaugh debate, he completely overshadowed men of greater genius 
and larger views, so here the former leader of the House under the 
Conservative Government had to stand back, and the new Chancellor 
of the Exchequer, Lord Randolph Churchill, became leader of the 
House. A certain sort of ability he possessed in a very remarkable de- 
gree. He had a profound belief that he ought to be heard, and he had 
a remarkable gift in the direction^ of making himself heard. Salisbury 
had constituted the new Tory Administration, and his active lieutenant 
in the House of Commons found himself opposed to a man seventy- 
six years of age and a cause as old as liberty and as young as her 
fondest hope. 

Soon Lord Randolph Churchill added to the list of his brilliant sur- 
prises by resigning from the Salisbury Government and declining a 
career as Chancellor of the Exchequer, which appeared brilliant indeed. 
The truth is that Lord Salisbury and the ardent young Lord could not 
agree. Things never went with sufificlent rapidity, not to say vivacity, to 
suit Lord Randolph. It got to be the habit of the English public to 
think of him as one who wanted to stir up the old fellows at West- 
minster and have a great and jolly time with them. When Lord Ran- 
dolph wanted the public to laugh at him they persisted in thinking 
him a very bright and valuable man; when he wanted the public to 
regard him with seriousness, they laughed. The fact is that he had the 
faith of Disraeli, that it is possible to gather into one interest and make 
a sort of trust out of Toryism and its superciliousness on the one side, 
and democracy, its ignorance and prejudice on the other. He said in 
the House of Commons on the land subject: 

"The system of a single ownership of land in Ireland we believe may 
be the ultimate solution of the difficulties of the Irish Land Question. Mr. 
Gladstone has been defeated in order to prevent Land Purchase, and here 
were his conquerers proposing Land Purchase the moment they appeared 
before Parliament. But this was not all. The main argument, as has been 



THE AGED WARRIOR. 343 

seen, against Mr. Gladstone's proposal, was that it would impose taxation 
on the British taxpayer. Mr. Gladstone entirely denied this, and agreed 
with his opponents in thinking that any burden on the British taxpayer 
for the payment of the Irish landlord would be monstrously inequitable. 
But the turn of his conquerors had come, and the chief among them 
laid down that not only would the British taxpayer have to pay for the 
Irish landlord, but that he ought. Lord Salisbury was dealing with the 
judicial rents fixed by the Land Courts, and with the demand that these 
rents should once again be revised. Such a general demand he described 
the Government as resolved to reject. But if it should come out that the 
Courts have made blunders, and that there is that impossibility in any 
case of paying rent, I think it is not the landlords who should bear the 
loss. I think this would be one of the cases for the application of the 
principle of purchase by the State, and that the State, and not the land- 
lords, must suffer for the errors that have been made." 

Of course it was impossible for him to make this theory work, 
for Ireland would not admit, as Mr. O'Connor says, that the rent of 
the landlords "had been fixed as to time through blunders." To adopt 
this and reject the land proposal of Mr. Gladstone was out of the 
question. The Irish party was up in arms at once. Mr. Parnell met 
the proposal which Mr. Chamberlain might liave been expected to 
agree to, but Chamberlain was not heard from. Mr. Gladstone was 
meanwhile sitting with Dr. Dollinger in Germany and recuperating his 
energies by discussing theology and philosophy with that famous athlete 
in both. Back to Parliament he came and gave his voice to the old 
cause. Mr. Parnell's bill w^as rejected. The fact is that there was dis- 
order in the ranks, and what is known as the Plan of Campaign was 
adopted and published to the world October 23d, 1886. It is too long 
to reproduce here, and is perhaps well understood by our readers. The 
Government had appointed a commission to inquire into the condition of 
the Land Question and also as to intimidation and unlawful conspiracy. 
The Irish party took such ground as to justify Mr. Parnell rather than 
Sir Michael Hicks-Beach, who was the representative of the Govern- 
ment, It was very certain that the latter had to confess that crime had 
been decreased by the Irish people themselves. Things were getting 
on very well, and Ireland was learning to like Sir Michael Hicks-Beach, 



344 GLADSTONE: A BIOGRAPHICAL STUDY. 

when he resigned, and Mr. Arthur Balfour became Chief Secretary. 
Here was a man persistent, able, scholarly, and he had the whole Tory 
tradition and Government behind him. Six years before he had begun 
to antagonize Mr. Gladstone and his proposals. Without Gladstone's 
physical strength, and with none of Gladstone's intensity of conviction 
or utterance, this languid and well-mannered relative of Lord Salisbury, 
sharing, by the way, Gladstone's love of theological lore, roused himself 
from that lassitude and indifferentism of which he often gave a picture in 
the House of Commons, and proved himself one of the firmest and most 
vigorous of men who ever undertook to rule Ireland. But he was not 
powerful, except along lines which prophesied nothing for the future. 

Such men as James Russell Lowell thought, with England, that 
Gladstone did not know his own mind. Lowell writes (see ''Letters of 
James Russell Lowell," copyright. Harpers, N. Y.), May 22, 1887: 

"At dinner, by the way^ I was glad to meet John Morley for the first 
time since my return. He welcomed me most cordially but looks older 
and a little worn with the friction of politics. But the cheerful fanaticism 
of his face is always exhilarating to me, though I feel that it would have 
the same placidly convinced expression if my head were rolling at his 
feet at the exigence of some principle. He knows where he stands on the 
Home Rule question better than Gladstone, for his opinions are more 
the result of conviction than of sentiment." 

He writes again, May 26: 

'T have seen Gladstone several times, and he is lighthearted as a boy 
— as lightheaded, too, I might almost say. I am amazed at the slowness 
of people here in seeing that the ice they have been floating on is about to 
break up — nay, will at the first rough water. The Irish question is only 
incidental to the larger question of their whole system of landholding, and 
the longer they delay settling that the more inevitable is it that this should 
stir itself. It is a misfortune and not a crime to be entangled in an an- 
achronism, but if one won't do what he can to break loose, one must share 
its fate without complaint or hope of compensation." 

No doubt Balfour's position was one which could not have been 
filled satisfactorily by any man in England who was willing to admin- 



THE AGED WARRIOR. 345 

ister the affairs of Ireland on the Tory philosophy. Whatever reason 
Gladstone had for opposing coercion as a scheme of civilizing Irishmen 
in the past, Balfour's career in Ireland had furnished him with count- 
less other reasons why it was not to be thought of as the- scheme of 
the future. Balfour's reign was denominated a reign of terror, and his 
career in Ireland was called a regime of brutality. England and Ireland 
could hardly have warred more seriously or foully. Bayonets and 
policemen made Ireland look like a besieged territory. Gladstone's ad- 
ministration had permitted police roporters on the platform where Irish- 
men spoke, and none had made objection. Indeed, the speakers them- 
selves had arranged for the police reporters; but now the latter came 
in a warlike fashion; the crowed resisted usually, and law^ and order were 
despised and trampled under foot. A single occasion of this sort fur- 
nished Balfour with matter which was laid before the House of Com- 
mons. He was singularly unfortunate because his information was lu- 
dicrously inaccurate, and very soon the Irish people believed that En- 
glish Government in Ireland meant armed injustice. 

The Coercion Act was signed by the Queen on the 17th of July, 
1887. Within a few days, armed with this new instrumentality and rely- 
ing on intimidation, he proclaimed the greater part of Ireland as terri- 
tory to be governed under the most stringent clause of this act. The 
National League was declared dangerous. He had started out to put 
down what he called "crime," and the National League was not con- 
sidered by the Irish people to be a criminal organization. On the 
charges of inciting acts of violence and the promotion of interference 
with the administration of the law, the League found two hundred of 
its branches suppressed by the first of October. Tenants were evicted 
by landlords everywhere, and the Irish press was muzzled. Distin- 
guished and honorable Irishmen were sentenced to imprisonment, and 
it came to be romantic, as any such incident of martyrdom will, to spend 
some time in one of the prisons, in obedience to the English Govern- 
ment. Indictments were presented against editors, lawyers and speak- 
ers of every degree of importance who denounced coercive measures. 
In one case, Mr. Balfour's indifference to humanity had been so great 
that Gladstone himself had described the occurrence of certain deaths, 



346 GLADSTONE: A BIOGRAPHICAL STUDY. 

concerning which no adequate inquiry had been made, as inhuman in 
the extreme, and he said the three men were treated "as though they 
had been three dogs." Cases w^ere brought before Mr. Balfour involv- 
ing young boys who would have been incapable of giving offense to any 
justly strong Government, but he administered unchecked the provis- 
ions of the Coercion Act. The Irish people could not quite see, as 
one of the best of them explained, the difference between their own 
boycotting societies and the highly respectable association of Tories in 
England called the Primrose League. 

During all this time grosser outrages were growing more frequent 
in spite of the Coercion Act and the pitiless execution of it by Mr. 
Balfour. In one famous case Mr. Gladstone took such interest as to 
enable him to declare that the whole affair was "a travesty of justice, as 
gross, as palpable, and as shameful as any that ever disgraced even the 
career of Judge Jeffreys." Gladstone asked if Balfour was not going 
to dismiss certain cases of injustice. Balfour replied that he was not. 
The conscience of England was becoming more sensitive with refer- 
ence to these horrors. Landlords were beginning to see that Ireland 
was growing to be a hotbed of deep and permanent rebelliousness, and 
that extremity of disorder would come unless something could be done 
to make the relationship between landlords and tenantry more satis- 
factory. The whole enterprise under Balfour made the Coercion Act, as 
Frederick Llarrison said, "an instrument which could be applied only 
to evict." 

The Irish people demanded the same power granted to the Land 
Commissioners in Ireland as was granted to the Land Commissioners 
in Scotland. Here were unjust arrears, and here were also unjust rents. 
It was one problem with two sides. To deal with it justly would save 
Ireland from turmoil and England from danger. 

Every nerve was strained in England to uphold the system of coer- 
cion. Parnell and his following must be put down at all costs. The 
London Times, in its foolish ardor, blundered into pubhshing with a 
flourish of trumpets, a forged letter attributed to Mr. Parnell. It was 

as follows: 

"May 15, 1882. 
"Dear Sir; I am not surprised at your friend's anger, but he and 



THE AGED WARRIOR. 347 

you should know that to denounce the murders was the only course open 
to us. To do that promptly was plainly our best policy. 

"But you can tell him and all others concerned that though I regret 
the accident of Lord F. Cavendish's death, I cannot refuse to admit that 
Burke got no more than his deserts. 

"You are at liberty to show him this, and others whom you can 
trust also; but let not my address be known. He can write to House of 
Commons. Yours Very Truly, 

"CHAS. S. PARNELL." 

One may easily imagine the sensation created by such a publication, 
at such a crisis as this. After a long and fearful trial, Mr. Parnell's 
cowardly antagonist w-as crushed, and the forger* of the letter conunit- 
ted suicide. Through it all, Mr. Gladstone stood holding fast to his 
faith and rendering such service to those who were watching with him 
the growth of a better sentiment. The popular revolt against Balfour's 
method and the treatment given to Parnell and the Irish cause swept 
against the Government, and when Mr. Balfour spoke, he was coldly 
received by the masses of honest men who were indignant at the sense- 
less antagonism to the Irish people and at the "Times" in its conduct 
toward Parnell. Toryism flagged throughout the debate. Dr. Tanner, 
having escaped arrest, made his appearance, and Gladstone delivered 
a masterly speech. When Mr. Parnell arose, Mr. Gladstone exultantly 
joined w^ith John Morley and Sir William Harcourt and the crowd of 
Liberals who cheered him vociferously. At length the Grand Old Man 
addressed the House. The echoes of Gladstone's speech rang through 
the House of Commons and re-echoed through England. His descrip- 
tion of the character and conduct of the Government, which was then 
falling to pieces, was an awful denunciation of power haughtily used by 
unrighteous hands. He saw the coming of Home Rule, and he spoke 
like a prophet and seer. These were his concluding words: 

"You may deprive of its grace and of its freedom the act which you 
are asked to do, but avert that act you cannot. To prevent its consum- 
mation is utterly beyond your power. It seems to approach at an accel- 
erated rate. Coming slowly or coming quickly, surely it is coming. And 
you yourselves, many of you, must in your own breasts be aware that 
already you see in the handwriting on the wall the signs of the coming 
doom." 



CHAPTER XLI. 
THE GRAND OLD MAN AGAIN IN POWER. 

With the last decade of his life our readers are doubtless familiar. 
At the general election of 1892 Mr. Gladstone was again given the 
reins of government, and he stood triumphant over the combination of 
Tories and Liberal Unionists, with a majorit)^ of two Home Rulers, 
England and Ireland, to make him sure of his position. For the fourth 
time he was asked and consented to constitute a Government under 
Her Majesty, and he became the Prime Minister. Dauntlessly true to 
the ideas to which he had consecrated the last years of his increasingly 
glorious career, and never more sure of the certainty of triumph for 
those principles which he had embodied in his plan for Home Rule than 
at that moment, he introduced a Bill on the 13th of February, 1893. 
Everything that Gladstone had done in the past for Home Rule ap- 
peared to have been a seed which blossomed into fullest fragrance in 
this public measure. What was called a "ParHament of Broken 
Pledges" lay as an ugly wreck behind him, but it gave such a lesson 
to England that it was easy for Gladstone to obtain a hearing for his' 
wider and juster conceptions of the mission of constitutional gov- 
ernment. He, himself, had grown, and Ireland was to be represented 
at Westminster by the action of this new Bill. It was a vast improve- 
ment over any previously proposed statute. Mr. Parnell no longer 
appeared as the leader of the Irish Nationalists, but Mr. Asquith, who 
had moved the vote of want of public confidence in the Tory Gov- 
ernment, early in June, 1892, had risen before England as something 
else besides the successful and learned orator at the bar, which he un- 
doubtedly had been for years, and Gladstone was ably assisted by his 
great and various Parliamentary talents; He made Mr. Asquith, Home 
Secretary, and this gentleman was not long in demonstrating to En- 
gland that Gladstone's power of finding the right man and putting him 

348 



THE GRAND OLD MAN AGAIN IN POWER. 349 

in the right place had made answer to the query: "Why Asquith?" This 
gentleman now showed himself to be a man of vast administrative ca- 
pacity. 

Gladstone also called to his aid such men as Bryce, who has written 
the best book, in any language, on our own American institutions from 
a foreigner's point of view; and an old friendship received undeniable 
and worthy witness in the fact that Mr. Arthur Ackland was placed in 
charge of public education. Sir William Vernon Harcourt was made 
Chancellor of the Exchequer, and Lord Rosebery, upon whom Mr. 
Gladstone's eye had already rested as his immediate successor, was 
placed in charge of foreign affairs. Gladstone made his old friend and 
literary companion, Lord Houghton, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. It 
was perhaps wise that the sharp sword of Mr. Labouchere, editor and 
proprietor of Truth, was not made an active instrumentality of Cabinet 
life. These were the men closest to Gladstone when he came forward 
with his Home Rule scheme, in which England learned that one of 
the main features of the earlier scheme, namely, a separate Irish Parlia- 
ment, with no representative for Ireland in the Imperial Parliament at 
London, was left out. Nothing, however, which he proposed in this 
measure could win back Mr. Chamberlain, but Sir George Trevelyan 
joined himself to Mr. Gladstone's party, and the latter thus found him- 
self again ofificered by this genial and able lieutenant. 

He had gone through a long struggle with reference to the question 
as to whether Parnell, who had suffered from a damaging experience 
in the Divorce Court, in a case which had gone against him, should be 
allowed to lead the Irish contingent, and. indeed, make any sort of figure 
in English life. Ireland had never been kind to her best friend and 
champion. Gladstone's loyalty to principle had, however, never wav- 
ered, in spite of this fact. But Parnell had disappeared, and the Home 
Rule' cause was freed from this embarrassment, and Gladstone's Bill 
swept through the House of Commons. Never has a man who tried to 
do something valuable and just for a wronged people, in any era of 
human history, been more embarrassed, annoyed and outraged by the 
behavior of those who connected themselves or were numbered with the 
defenders of that people, than was William Ewart Gladstone, the friend 



350 GLADSTONE: A BIOGRAPHICAL STUDY. 

of Ireland, when he stood with the Irish party hopelessly at war within 
itself and when England looked on laughingly and tauntingly as the 
Kilkenny fight among them proceeded. Thousands of men who were 
led by Gladstone's faith to believe in the capacity of even that section of 
humanity for self-government beheld the wretched and dismaying exhi- 
bition which the Irish people made of themselves, and to the sorrow, 
and often to the consternation of Gladstone and his followers, they 
pointed out what they believed to be traits of Irish character, or at 
least conditions of the Irish mind, which made Home Rule appear only 
a fantastic vision generated by a brilliant mind now coming to its dotage. 
The antagonistic sections of the Irish people did not fail to supply a 
most sickening picture to the heart of the greater leader. At unex- 
pected times, and in entirely unforeseen ways, crime lifted its scaly form 
in Ireland; and it must be admitted that there was great sympathy even 
for the House of Lords, when it was known that they hesitated to pass 
Gladstone's Bill which had been successful in the House of Commons. 
But the Lords did more than hesitate; they rejected the Bill by an 
enormous majority. This was the last fact wliich could in any way 
bewilder the brain or extract the courage from the heart of a Com- 
moner like Gladstone. He knew the House of Lords represented the 
vanishing tradition which had organized that body too often into oppo- 
sition against measures whose passage through Parliament the English 
people demanded. He saw another thing which is sure to come to 
pass in England, that Anglo-Saxon freedom under Anglo-Saxon law 
will at length demand the most thorough reform or the total abolition 
of the House of Lords. 

This, however, was not the time for Mr. Gladstone to inaugurate 
such a far-reaching movement as would disrupt and perhaps destroy 
the Upper House. That crusade must be led by another. He was a 
worker who had earned his right to rest, if only by the fact that in 
recent years he had undertaken such gigantic labors and carried them 
through with such infinite tact and toil. He had been incessant in labor 
in and out of season. None of his party could ever persuade him that he 
might be absent from sessions of the House of Commons while his 
projects were in the fire of debate. His enormous passion for work in 



THE GRAND OLD MAN AGAIN IN POWER. 351 

the cause of law and liberty took him into the closest study of all sorts 
of subjects which were likely to appear before the mind of the Lower 
House. Punch has made a picture of Gladstone which almost every 
visitor to the House of Commons will recognize as vividly true, — the 
eager, radiant-eyed, flushed old man, sitting on the edge of his seat, 
either trying to catch the eye of the speaker at the moment when he 
might furnish the House some information, or expose some ignorance 
of which he alone was aware, or anxious to call to himself some lieuten- 
ant who would execute his orders. Like a sleepless general, he always 
directed the battle. 

As a young man, he had trained himself to answer every question, 
discuss every clause, give amazing patience and careful knowledge to 
any less strenuous ally, or more querulous member, and now, even while 
some one else was expected to look after Financial Budgets, he pursued 
the same method in handling doubtful friends or dangerous foes, in con- 
ciliating those whom he had provoked by his straightforwardness, and 
in supplying the defenders of the measure of which he was the champion 
with all the resources with which he himself came and triumphed in 
debate. Never was a great man more lavish in bestowing his gifts and 
intelligence upon those who could only be his lieutenants. He had 
been especially careful to note the appearance of every really noble and 
rising young man; and it was his habit to grant to him complete pos- 
session of the large stores of knovidedge and the lessons of his long 
Parliamentary experience ; and even when ingratitude showed itself, or 
jealousy exhibited its less hideous features, the Grand Old Man acted 
as though he had no power of control or weapon of argument which 
he would not willingly give into the hands of some one else, if, by that 
means, the measure initiated for public good might be made victorious. 
The House of Commons, though he was opposed for long years by 
Disraeli, sharply attacked by Lord Randolph Churchill, forsaken by 
John Bright, mercilessly fought by Joseph Chamberlain, became a 
school for young debaters, who have profited by beholding how much 
of patient generosity and gentility may be allied with unprecedented 
skill and boundless resource in such a figure and influence as Gladstone. 
Young men were put to shame, oftentimes, by beholding this redoubta- 



352 



GLADSTONE: A BIOGRAPHICAL STUDY. 



ble old man holding in his firm, yet courteous grasp, a beaten minority 
or a half despairing majority, until he could, by persistent appeal and 
adroit maneuver, win the day for his party. At the last of his career 
in the Llouse of Commons, the exquisite modulations of that voice 
which would have given him distinction as a singer, fell upon the ears 
of friends and foes alike, in its subtle and resistless music. 

Age had transforrned the passion of his antagonists into something 
like respectful admiration of the unprecedented talents and superb cour- 
age, if not the large statesmanship, of one whose name is the pride of 
Anglo-Saxon civilization. Men seemed to know that he had fought 
his fight, and that it had been a noble one, that he had withstood the 
noise and severity of personal encounter with the mob, had showed the 
opposition a hundred times that he knew no such thing as fear, and 
was, in the eventide of life, as clear in his comprehension of the truth 
he wanted to state as ever before, and that the genuine reverence in 
which the dauntless old orator was held, became witness, not only to his 
unique talents, but also to the generosity of his lifelong foes. There can 
be no question that Gladstone, the once haughty and thoroughly 
equipped Tory, had an imperiousness of manner when he was in the 
fray, which bore down hard, sometimes, upon friend and foe alike. He 
had taken everything in his life seriously. He had been in dead earnest 
from the beginning to the very end of his career; and yet, with the mel- 
low evening there came a sweetness of temper and a glowing beauty dif- 
, fusing itself from his very presence, with which it was impossible to 
contend and in whose influence it was delightful to stand. 

The Grand Old Man was about to place the reins of government in 
other hands. It was now impossible for him, as it had been in i860, to 
carry his Bill over the House of Lords. He might have denounced 
them with the same resistless force of appeal and lofty arguments with 
which he disdained to scorn their action when his Bill for the abolition 
of Duty on Paper had been rejected. His friends urged him to appeal 
to the country, after dissolving Parliament. They still saw in the aged 
Commoner the potencies for a triumph such as might take from the ma- 
chinery of English political life a good deal of unnecessary and anti- 
quated material. Radicalism beseeched him to make the fight against 



THE GRAND OLD MAN AGAIN IN POWER. 353 

the House of Lords. But there were reasons, which Gladstone himself 
never made public, but which ultimately led him even to deny the Lib- 
eral party the prestige and force of his own leadership, and the great 
leader went to the ranks as a follower in the House of Commons. 

After a brief respite from public cares to which latter, even as an or- 
dinary member of the House of Commons, he gave his usual laborious- 
ness and power, he found himself, in 1894, on the Treasury Bench, his 
Home Rule measure having been rejected by the House of Lords. 
His face was still radiant with the hope that, by and by, and in other 
hands, it would achieve its triumph. It was interesting to w^atch him 
in those days as he came up against the fact that the House of Lords 
only had obstructed the progress of what he believed to be most im- 
portant legislation in the interests of the British Empire. Once more 
they now unrighteously interfered. It was on a small matter, — the Par- 
ish Councils Bill, — but Gladstone spoke one word, which lifted the 
Liberal party to its feet. He seemed to see the people of the Empire 
rising in revolt at its dogged Conservatism and its jaunty reappearance 
as an obstructionist. He said: 

"For me, my duty termmates with calling the attention of this House 
to a fact which it is really impossible to set aside — that we are considering 
a part, an essential and inseparable part, of a question enormously large, 
a question which has become profoundly a truth, a question that will de- 
mand a settlement, and must at an early date receive that settlement 
from the highest authority." 

If Gladstone had been a Disraeli, theatrical as well as eloquent, lov- 
ing to explode a sentiment as well as to put himself before the English 
people as their only deliverer and proper guide, he would have taken 
advantage of that hour, echoing still w^ith the storm of cheers and wit- 
nessing to the growing quality of his statesmanship at the very last. 
He would have said some word of farewell which might have remained 
in the history of eloquence and patriotism, unique and prophetic. Per- , 
haps he did not do that thing for the reason that through all his soul 
there moved the consciousness that his Cabinet and he were not in such 
harmony as might justify his speaking from such a position in the 

manner usually required by the necessities of the case. He was great 
23 



354 GLADSTONE: A BIOGRAPHICAL STUDY. 

enough to move from out the light beating against the throne of his 
power without an attitude or gesture which could be misinterpreted. He 
was willing to retire at an hour when the British nation knew how per- 
ilous was the existence of the House of Lords, as at present constituted, 
in a crisis like this. 

There was really no one for Gladstone to select as successor but Lord 
Rosebery. A crisis had come in the life of the Liberal party, and it 
was sure that Rosebery's abilities, his connections, and the attitude of 
the Liberal leaders toward him constituted him the best man for the 
place. He shared many of Gladstone's studies, though his own con- 
trasted with Gladstone's regularity of conduct, for he was in the habit 
of giving his intervals of leisure not to the theology, either of Abraham 
or Homer, but to the interests of the turf. 

The young Lord and Gladstone had often chatted together about 
old china, or the most recently obtained picture from the brush of an old 
master acquired for the National Gallery. They had been interested 
likewise in orators, novelists, historians, poets and essayists, and Rose- 
bery, like Gladstone, was possessed of immense information. He was 
ambitious to be a great orator and an excellent writer, and in both of 
these ambitions he has obtained, especially in the latter, a fair measure 
of success. 

Gladstone, who had fought under Lord John Russell, Lord Pal- 
merston and Lord Derby, could see no objection to him because 
Rosebery was a lord. Gladstone knew the immense benefit which 
should accrue to him by having at his hand such abilities as were repre- 
sented by Sir William Harcourt, Mr. Asquith, John Morley, Arthur 
Morley, Lord Kimberley and Mr. Fowler, who was already a fine 
sw^ordsman in debate. His successor was left to appoint his own fol- 
lowers. He was to have the richest -blessing of Mr. Gladstone, and he 
was duly inducted into the office, with Mr. Leonard Courtney as one of 
his efficient lieutenants, and a large number of able friends as his fol- 
lowers. 



CHAPTER XLII. 

GLADSTONE THE MAN. 

It was impossible for such an eventide as threw its cahn and 1)eaLite- 
oits light on Gladstone, to have visited upon a less noble figure its 
complete and serene glory. We have seen the statesman as a student 
of Christian theology and of Homer, and soon we behold him as the 
translator of Horace, adding to that branch of literature a contribution 
as characteristic as he has ever given to the world. At Hawarden Castle 
he lived in the sweet companionship of his books. His librarv, by the 
way, is a witness to the many-sided intellectual and spiritual life of the 
deceased statesman. No one has better understood the value and sig- 
nificance of books than he. To have seen him at Ouaritch's, in Picca- 
dilly, roaming about amidst that unique collection of rare volumes, 
was to see the most delighted of human beings in the most charming 
environment. Master of many tongues, he would pick up a rare edi- 
tion of Dante and discourse upon the seriousness and message of the 
austere Italian singer, or, having lit upon the earliest printed edition 
of Homer, he would find a page which started his mind into scholarly 
utterance, or, attracted to a set of volumes by Racine, or a volume by 
Lacordaire, he would state with discrimination and fullness his views 
of the position of the one in poetry and of the other in churchmanship, 
and thus, from old missals glorious with gold and color or yellow with 
age, and interesting from previous associations, through tomes of 
church fathers and exhibits of bindings, which latter always demanded 
his careful and thorough appreciation, he would stray over to the Latin 
authors, or perhaps to a Hebrew Bible, and, thinking at that moment of 
a review which he was writing on the latest important novel, he would 
say: "Send me all the new books." Thus Hawarden Castle had as its 
point of central interest to this scholar, the magnificent collection of 
books which he had made in the flight of more than a half century. Every 

355 



356 GLADSTONE: A BIOGRAPHICAL STUDY. 

villager had been permitted to borrow books from this collection, and 
oftentimes one might see a young hired man on the estate journeying 
away from Hawarden Castle with a volume of most precious importance, 
both to the lender and borrower. The large tables in the library were 
each of them devoted to special subjects, and, in late years, Gladstone 
returned with affection to the Homer table, from which the storm of 
public life had so often driven him, and to which, as often, he went back 
with joy. In that library such authors as have created literatures for 
their own exposition had their separate places, thus enabling Mr. Glad- 
stone and the members of his family to study them with ease; and there 
was no more interesting sight for a bibliophile than the Horace table, 
or the theology table, or the Armenian table, as these subjects, one after 
another, came before him in the days of his respite from arduous labors. 
More interesting than any or all his books to Gladstone was the 
woman who sat with him through so many days and nights, whose 
father's castle became his home, — the daughter of Sir Stephen Glynne — 
Mrs. WilHam E. Gladstone. The relationship in which these two souls 
have stood, labored, sorrowed, triumphed, has furnished an ideal chap- 
ter in the history of human marriages. Mrs. Gladstone has been his 
inspirer and guide, his closest and best friend, his sincerest appre- 
ciator and profoundest critic, his companion in soul and intellect, since 
that lovely day in which they found themselves man and wife in Hawar- 
den Castle. She has matched his almost measureless capacity for work 
with her own. She has equaled his with her own intensity of conviction 
and her own comprehensiveness of intellect. She has gone with him 
through severe campaigns in Midlothian, attending to his wants as a 
mother might care for a child, partaking of the excitement of approv- 
ing cheers and sharing with him the dangers of threatening mobs; at his 
right hand supplying him with this needed help or that note of manu- 
script, nursing him through colds, and arranging for his hours of sleep, 
relieving his mind, if possible, from the thousand cares which come 
with a family of children — loved and nurtured as have been Gladstone's 
children, going with him to the little graveyard, and standing with him 
by the empty cradle, traveling to the last from place to place on the 
planet, that her espoused and heroic husband might gain relief from tor- 



GLADSTONE THE MAN. 357 

turing pain, — always the wife and mother, the friend and counsellor, 
his soul's veritable mate. 

It would have been impossible for Gladstone to have accomplished 
anything like the measure of success in so many realms of human prog- 
ress, if he had been otherwise associated in his family life. Mrs. Glad- 
stone has met and managed the vast number of visitors clamoring for 
her husband's precious hours, and rarely, if ever, has the humblest been 
pained by too little, or the loftiest allowed too much, of his time and 
power, by the firm and intelligent administration she has conducted. 
Together with him she has walked almost daily to the little church in 
the village where the English Premier has often read the lesson, and 
where he was delighted and uplifted by the ministration of his own son. 
That little footpath leading from the Castle to the church has been 
trodden by them both in hours when British and international states- 
manship was receiving its best inspiration from the churchgoing of this 
indissoluble couple. When he went forth, as was his habit, with axe 
in hand, to strengthen his already superb physical organism by cutting 
trees in Hawarden Forest, there was one eye which followed him with 
•the love which she conceived when first they met in Italy. 

Yet his favorite exercise was only one of the many ways in which 
his tremendous powers were employed. He would as likely take a com- 
panion, and, while pouring out from the wealth of his intelligence 
musical speech on religion, art, or politics, he would persist in walking 
ten or twelve miles, or set himself about the preparation of an address 
as Lord Rector of the University, or answer the command of his Queen 
to present himself at St. James' Palace, or Osborne, or begin his reply 
to the editor of the "Nineteenth Century" or the "Contemporary Re- 
view," or the half dozen other great periodicals in England or America 
to which he contributed; or perhaps he would be found at the station, 
meeting Robert Browning, or the Chancellor of the University of Ox- 
ford, or even his old friend Cardinal Manning; or he would join with 
one of his sons or daughters in making a visit to some helpless or un- 
fortunate one among the many who lived in the cottages on the estate. 
In all these and in a hundred other ways, Gladstone lived his life, and 



358 GLADSTONE: A BIOGRAPHICAL STUDY. 

it was shared most profoundly by the woman whom Providence gave 
to him as companion. 

He always insisted upon his right to his Sunday, and he attributed 
a large measure of his health and good spirits to the fact that no one 
was able to steal from him this golden day. He usually attended daily 
the service at Hawarden, or elsewhere, and those who have heard him 
read from the Scriptures in the village church know something of that 
feeling which was possessed by the great historian who averred his 
belief that Gladstone would have been the most fascinating, as well as 
vigorous power in English church life, if he had taken orders and had, 
as naturally he would have had, a career closing in the Archbishopric 
of Canterbury and Primacy of all England. 

England has lost notjiing, the world has gained much by the pic- 
ture which is left to a materialistic and agnostic age — of the Premier of 
the British Empire standing at the reading-desk and filling the sacred 
house with the tones which bore to his hearers the vision of the prophet, 
the sigh of the saint, the prayer of the sinner, and the wide hope of the 
Evangelist. The Harley street house in London, and surely the Down- 
ing street house, never entered into successful rivalry with Hawarden as 
Gladstone's home. Mrs. Gladstone's brother added a new wing to the 
castle which he called the Gladstone Wing, dedicated to the author, 
orator and statesman. It has been what the title bestowed upon the 
library would indicate, "The Temple of Peace." Here and at a church 
Gladstone had found the deepest influences coming into his life. It 
must not be forgotten at any point in Gladstone's career, that, great as 
he was as a man of letters and sure and powerful as was that stream 
of literary power enforcing arguments and illuminating statements in 
his speeches as a politician, he was still more great as a churchman, and 
he seemed never to get over the disappointment at not having been 
allowed, in his youth, to pursue the career of a minister. Whatever 
peculiarity of mind Mr. Gladstone has shown, may be traced, — at least it 
has been influenced largely by — the fact that he has relied upon his 
religious convictions as the sole foundation of the political structure he 
would build. He has lived a singularly upright and blameless life. But 
he has done more than this, he began and continued his career in the 



GLADSTONE THE MAN. 359 

belief that every strong man ought to feel, as he has felt, that he is an 
agent for the carrying out of the Providential designs of God. Nothing 
else will explain Gladstone's utter disregard of consequences apparent 
to other men, — consequences flowing from a course of action upon 
which he had decided. 

He believed God would not forsake him, and if he had an imperious- 
ness equal to Cromwell's, he fell back upon the faith of the prophet 
which he believed himself to be, and he trusted God as he conceived 
Him. We have pointed out that it is a churchman's conception of God 
which controlled Gladstone. Other men about him had no such faith, 
even in their own conception of God, still less did they feel his confi- 
dence in the God whom he conceived. Yet never even Disraeli sneered 
at Gladstone's religiousness. On the other hand, the former's foreign 
policy went down before the attack made by Gladstone upon it, in the 
name of those interests which are usually called religious. 

Sunday evening at Hawarden Castle commonly closed the day of 
meditation and prayer and reading, with the singing of familiar hymns, 
in which Gladstone often joined. Monday came and found him in 
Parliament or elsewhere, refreshed and surer than ever that there is 
ever a God in Israel. Doubtless he oftentimes mistook his somewhat 
churchly view of God, his scholastically conceived opinions about what 
God wanted to do, for these sacred things; but to stand on his feet at 
all, such a man as Gladstone must have such a rigorous and even im- 
perious faith. Other men might spend Sunday as they would; here was 
a man whose lips were glowing with the coal from God's altars, and, 
rested and inspired as he was, it is little wonder that he brought a keen 
intellect and an almost awful laboriousness to Downing street, and, then, 
every official in the Government knew that the conscientious and in- 
dustrious statesman would know what he believed to be the truth about 
all the affairs of the Government. An intellect having such a grasp, 
and ranging over such territory as did Gladstone's intellect, could find 
nothing else upon which to rely in the varied moods and in the multi- 
tudinous paths it must know, save such a religious life as he has lived. 
This religious enthusiasm has been shared by his wife and family, and 
it has enlivened many pages nf otherwise dry controversy. 



360 GLADSTONE: A BIOGRAPHICAL STUDY. 

Gladstone's home was always a resort of poets, artists, theologians, 
and politicians, from every quarter of the world. Even Gladstone's ab- 
horrence of tobacco yielded to Tennyson, in order that the two great 
friends might enjoy happy days together, 

John Ruskin had called himself a Tory such as Homer and Walter 
Scott, and he had violently berated Gladstone, and his biography, by 
Professor ColHnwood, furnishes no more delightful page than this: 

"During this term, 1883, he was prevailed upon to allow himself to 
be nominated as a candidate for the rectorship of the University of Glas- 
gow. He had been asked to stand in the Conservative interest in 1880, 
and he had been worried into a rather rough reply to the Liberal party^ 
when after some correspondence they asked him whether he sympathized 
with Lord Beaconsfield or Mr. Gladstone. 'What in the devil's name/ he 
exclaimed, 'have you to do with either Mr. Disraeli or Mr. Gladstone? 
You are students at the University, and have no more business with poli- 
tics than you have with rat-catching. Had you ever read ten words of 
mine with understanding, you would have known that I care no more 
either for Mr. Disraeli or Mr. Gladstone than for two old bagpipes with the 
drones going by steam, but that I hate all Liberalism as I do Beelzebub, 
and that, with Carlyle, I stand, we two alone now in England, for God and 
the Queen.' After that, though he might explain that he never, under any 
conditions of provocation or haste^ would have said that he hated Liberal- 
ism as he did Mammon, or Belial, or Moloch; that he 'chose the milder 
fiend of Ekron as the true exponent and patron of Liberty, the God of 
Flies;' still the matter-of-fact Glaswegians were minded to give the scoffer 
a wide berth. He was put up as an independent candidate in the three-cor- 
nered duel; and, as such candidates usually fare, he fared badly. The only 
wonder is that three hundred and nineteen students were found to vote 
for him, instead of siding, in political orthodoxy, with Mr. Fawcett or the 
Marquis of Bute." 

Yet Ruskin changed his opinion. 

After his leaving public life, it became much more easy for Mr. 
Gladstone to spend time with his correspondence, and to make play of 
literary M-ork. But he has known so well the use of time in all his life, 
that he has been exceedingly productive as a letter writer, and many 
volumes attest the delight of his studies in the form of essays. As an 
example of his use of time, Mr. Lucy, writing, in 1882, tells us: 



GLADSTONE THE MAN. 361 

"One night last session, when the Irish members were in high spirits, 
and were leading the high court of ParUament through a continuous 
series of perambulations round the division lobby, Mr. Gladstone got 
through an immense amount of correspondence. He wrote on his knee 
whilst seated on the Treasury Bench. When the bell rang for the division 
he went on writing rapidly. As soon as the Speaker dispatched 'Ayes to 
the right' and 'Noes to the left,' the Premier adroitly sprang up, and dis- 
playing the agility of a young buck, made his way out into the division 
lobby before the crush came. In recesses of the lobby there are providen- 
tially set forth writing-tables, and here, w^hilst the throng of members 
pressed forward, the Premier sat, taking up the thread of his discourse, 
and writing as if the immediate object of his life was to earn the tenpence 
an hour doled out to the minions of the Foreign Office. As soon as the 
last member approached the wicket, Mr. Gladstone rose, passed through, 
resumed his seat on the Treasury Bench, and went on writing as before, 
going through the process with undiminished energy as often as it pleased 
the obstructionists to trot out the Saxon Parliament through the lobbies. 
In these circumstances, when the House is unequally divided, a minority 
of ten or a dozen going into one lobby and a majority of two or three hun- 
dred into the other, a division occupies at least a quarter of an hour. But 
Mr. Gladstone had saved every moment except those occupied in rapidly 
walking over the uncrowded course." 

It is supposed that once Gladstone found himself giving too much 
time to old china, and in 1874 the excellent collection was sold. Of its 
rarity and value one may have some idea, if he has made studies of the 
fragment of the collection of ivories and antique jewels exhibited at 
the South Kensington Museum and the cabinets still containing count- 
less objects of interest in Hawarden Castle. 

In 1895 Mr. Gladstone sent a note to one of his friends containing 
this passage: "Above all present purposes, indicate the right of the 
House of Commons as the organ of the nation; and re-establish the 
honor of England, as well as consolidate the strength of the Empire by 
conceding the great and institutional claims of Ireland." This was 
signed and sent July 5th. It furnished evidence that the Grand Old Man 
still had a program, even if others were to carry it out. He dipped into 
theology at this period with even more than his wonted interest, and 
he wrote articles for the reviews, oftentimes eclipsing his former studies 



362 GLADSTONE: A BIOGRAPHICAL STUDY. 

by the brilliancy of his style and the affluence of his learning. The great 
world which he had taught and in which he had acted for so long a time, 
he could not wholly forsake, and, up to a recent date, if one was fortunate 
enough to find him at Biarritz, or in the Riviera, he was sure to see 
Gladstone amidst publicists, diplomatists, statesmen, literary men, artists 
of other countries, leading the conversation and surpassing any or all 
by the interest of his remarks. He was constantly turning to his old 
authors and finding his early love well placed. His treatment of the 
author of the "Analogy of Natural and Revealed Religion" is a tardy 
piece of justice which came at last to the great Bishop of Durham, and is 
a witness of Gladstone's piety, thorough scholarship, and conscientious 
industry. He delighted himself and his readers with graceful and in- 
cisive studies of Sheridan and the Enghsh poets. But his deeper thought 
ran toward the great subject of the unity of Christendom. 

The present occupant of the Papal chair has, by his piety, learning, 
and philanthropy, endeared himself to all Christians throughout the 
world, and it was impossible that the letter which the Pope addressed 
to the English people should not produce a great impression upon the 
public mind. It furnished evidence that Leo XIII. deeply desired the 
unity of Christ's flock in the world. Gladstone had for a long time been 
in correspondence with the old Catholics, so-called, and with men who 
stood in the position occupied by Dr. Dollinger and Cardinal Manning, 
and he was sincerely interested in bringing about a union of the dis- 
severed ranks of Christianity into one great army of the Lord. It is 
doubtful if Gladstone would have done much to please the Dissenters, 
although without the Dissenters in England we could hardly conceive of 
Gladstone's having won some of his greatest victories for righteousness. 
The discussion turned upon the point of the validity of orders in the 
English Established Church. Gladstone's letter was worthy of his truly 
comprehensive and, profoundly irenic intellect. He acknowledged his 
joy in noting "the progressive advance of a great work of restoration 
in Christian doctrine." He was glad that it was not confined to his 
own communion. He had faith in the future of the English Church, but 
he indicated that if the Catholic Church might agree that the Anglican 



GLADSTONE THE MAN. 363 

ordinations are valid, a mighty step forward would be taken toward 
Church unity. 

Of course this has no surpassing interest to many Americans, but it 
must ever be remembered as one of the consummate flowers in a garden 
glorious with eventide. 

All England united at last to do honor to the Grand Old Man, and 
nothing was more beautiful than the speech of the Prince of Wales 
when, as Chancellor of the University, he spoke of Mr. and Mrs. Glad- 
stone, upon the former of whom he had just conferred an honor. 

"You will all join with me," tlie Prince said, "I am sure, in thanking 
the veteran statesman and eminent scholar, Mr. Gladstone, wdio, not- 
withstanding his advanced age, has undertaken a journey, necessarily 
fatiguing, in order to pay a compliment to the University of Wales and 
to myself as its Chancellor. I may truly say that one of the proudest 
moments of my life was when I found myself in the flattering position 
of being able to confer an academic distinction upon Mr. Gladstone, 
who furnishes a rare instance of a man who has achieved one of the high- 
est positions as a statesman and at the same time has attained such dis- 
tinction in the domain of literature and scholarship. His translation of 
the Odes of Horace would alone constitute a lasting monument to him 
even had he not accomplished so much besides which has rendered him 
illustrious. Nor do we extend a less warm welcome to ]\Ir. Gladstone's 
ever faithful companion and helper during the many years of his busy 
hfe." 

Nothing was more characteristic of Mr. Gladstone than that the 
powers in him which responded to the cry of Bulgaria should respond 
quickly to the equally pathetic cry of Armenia, or the weaker plea of 
Crete. No picture of the Grand Old Man is more interesting than that 
which he left upon the mind of the realm when he stood in his own 
birthplace, Liverpool, and made such an appeal as reached the fortress 
of the Oriental assassin, whose cruelty amazed the intelligence of 
Europe. Gladstone saw the terrible fact that the brutality of the Turk 
had set itself to the extinction of Christianity, and to the overturning of 
any rights which the Armenian subjects of the Sultan might have 
acquired. Gladstone knew that there was little which England might 



364 GLADSTONE: A BIOGRAPHICAL STUDY. 

yet do, in comparison with what England ought to have done at an 
earher date, but that httle was much, and he said: "'That coercion, 
which ought long ago to have been applied to him (the Sultan) might 
even now be the means of averting another series of massacres, possibly 
even exceeding those which we have already seen." Gladstone, the 
man of peace, had uttered the word which for the moment meant war, 
if necessary, and Lord Rosebery, with his party in a small minority, had 
found an opportunity for retiring from the leadership of the Liberal 
party. 

But Gladstone's Liverpool speech was only one of many on the same 
subject, and his pen was as mighty as ever it had been in denouncing 
Bulgarian atrocities. He wrote in the "Nineteenth Century" and else- 
where, and the Sultan was pressed closely by public opinion in Eng- 
land, roused and heated by Mr. Gladstone to the point of making such 
demands as would satisfy the conscience of civilization. He proposed 
that England, on her own responsibility, should do righteousness. 
When it was suggested that England should listen' to the siren voices, 
Gladstone said: 

"However we may desire and strive to obtain the co-operation of others, 
is it possible for us to lay down this doctrine : England may give for her- 
self the most solemn pledges in the most binding shape, but she now claims 
the right of referring it to some other person or persons, State or States, 
not consulted or concerned in her act, to determine whether she shall en- 
deavor to the utmost of her ability to fulfill them? 

"If this doctrine is really to be adopted, I would respectfully propose 
that the old word 'honor' should be effaced from our dictionaries, and 
dropped from our language." 

The very presence of Gladstone in England, laying bare the peril 
of Christian civilization in the Orient, and pleading with intelligence 
and earnestness for humanity, is a fact never to be forgotten, even in the 
reign of that sordid materialism which answered it not. 

Never was there a moment in Gladstone's career when a halting 
policy and vested interests chafed in Lombard Street,' on the Exchange, 
and more sympathetically uttered the old criticism of Lord Aberdeen: 
"He is too obstinate. If a man could be too honest, I should say he 



GLADSTONE THE MAN. 365 

is too honest. He does not think enough of what other men think. 
When he has convinced himself, perhaps by abstract reasoning, of some 
view, he thinks everyone else ought to see it as he does, and can make 
no allowances for difference of opinion." There is really nothing so 
stubborn or impractical, in the eyes of a politician, as the unbending 
convictions of a statesman. 

Gladstone at this moment was a sick man, and his physician was 
urging him to avoid labor, and especially to keep out of unnecessary 
controversy. But his physician labored in vain. He said: 

"Here is a man who, at the very end of a long life honorably spent in 
the service of his country, in possession of everything a mortal can 
desire, risks fame, position^ the love, nay, the esteem, of his country and 
his Sovereign — everything, in fact, worth living for, — in order to carry out 
what he is profoundly convinced to be right. And how that man is vilified! 
But mark my word, no man will be more regretted or extolled when he is 
gone." 

Always from these turbulent scenes Mr. Gladstone had gone into the 
peace and defense of Hawarden Castle. Ten years before his death, 
the fiftieth anniversary of his marriage with Miss Glynne had been cele- 
brated; and the last ten years of his life, closing as they did in that 
remarkably tender and almost thrilling farewell when death came, were 
the answer to his prayer that he might spend the tranquil eventide and 
close the day of his life at Hawarden. Here he had loved and shared 
his life with the mate of his soul; here he had seen his children reared to 
manhood and womanhood, or from the little church yonder he had fol- 
lowed them to the grave. From the time they had bade farewell to the 
little girl, early in the fifties, to the time when the old man followed to 
the grave the son upon whom he most leaned as his friend and helper, 
the lights and shadows of life had mingled most significantly here. 
Here he had talked with Tennyson and Browning, with Ruskin and 
Dean Stanley, and from this library he had sent forth his views in 
controversy with the redoubtable antagonists of the Christian faith in 
every country. Out of this library had gone his words of fine optimism 
in his reply to Alfred Tennyson's "Locksley Hall Sixty Years After- 
ward," and it was but a specimen of that mu^ic which he sounded from 



366 GLADSTONE: A BIOGRAPHICAL STUDY. 

the high moral and mental point of view he had in his own home. He 
said, speaking of the attitude of a thoughtful man toward the past and 
the future: 

"Each generation or age of men is under a twofold temptation: the 
one to overrate its own performances and prospects, the other to under- 
value the times preceding or following its own. No greater calamity can 
happen to a people than to break utterly with its Past. But the proposition 
in its full breadth applies more to its aggregate, than to its immediate Past. 
Our judgment on the age that last preceded us should be strictly just. But 
it should be masculine, not timorous ; for, if we gild its defects, and glorify 
its errors, we dislocate the axis of the very ground which forms our own 
point of departure." 

Nothing is more charactertistic of Mr. Gladstone's old age than the 
fountain of perpetual youth bubbling up its liquid jewels of thought 
from the very secrets of his soul. Other men might be delighted to see 
a country with an income so much more vast than its expenditures as 
to astonish the world; Gladstone knew that there is another basis for 
true national prosperity, and when he went to Wales to speak, he said: 

"A country is in a good and sound and healthy state when it exhibits 
the spirit of progress in all its institutions and in all its operations ; and when 
with that spirit of progress it combines the spirit of afifectionate retrospect 
upon the times and the generations that have gone before, and the deter- 
mination to husband and to turn at every point to the best account all that 
these previous generations have accumulated of what is good and worthy 
for the benefit of us, their children." 

Such persistent vitality of thought was associated in Gladstone with 
a charm of manner and a reality of faith so comprehensive as to gather 
into its friendship some of those who had been most strongly antagonis- 
tic to him in other years. No one, for example, paid a more touching 
tribute to Gladstone after his life had closed, than Mr, Balfour, leader 
of the Tory Government, who, rising from a bed of sickness, sought 
to do himself and his party the honor (for he could add nothing to the 
laurels of Gladstone) of placing upon record his opinion of that great 
man. Lord Salisbury's address alone, in which he made special men- 
tion of the fact that Gladstone must be known as the incarnation of 



GLADSTONE THE MAN. 367 

Christian statesmanship, equaled the address of Balfour, and it eclipsed, 
by its radiance of affectionate regard, all the flashings of the swords in 
years agone. It all reminded one that, after all, there was in Gladstone 
something far greater than what any difference of opinion could pos- 
sibly effect. 

Once John Ruskin, who had been visiting at Windsor, was per- 
suaded to go to Hawarden, and Ruskin used to say of his Toryism that 
it was firm and implacable. No man in England had furnished such 
bitter pages with reference to Gladstone as had Ruskin. But they met 
and loved each other. The history of human apologies is not complete 
without that page from "Fors Clavigera," in which Ruskin chronicles 
the fact that he had completely misconceived Gladstone. When the 
time for the reprinting of the old magazine came., Ruskin would not 
permit the passage in which he had scored Mr. Gladstone, to reappear, 
but in the blank space he left a little note, calling it "A Memorial of 
Rash Judgment." 

Gladstone himself once quoted Browning's "Sordello" to this effect: 

"Upgathered on himself the fighter stood 
For his last fight, and wiping treacherous blood 
Out of his eyelids, just held ope beneath 
Those shading fingers in their iron sheath. 
Steadied his strength amid the shock and stir 
Of the dusk hideous atmosphere." 

And the aged man, always desiring the love of the best of men, re- 
marked half sadly as he brightened with hope: "I know I have appeared 
like unto that; but 'time is on our side,' and I will be understood fully 
perhaps before my career ends here." 



CHAPTER XLIII. 
AT EVENTIDE. 

One of Gladstone's earlier biographers has told us a story that, at 
one time, in the history of that home where argumentation was as much 
a staple of its life as religion was, the young William Gladstone and 
his sister Mary were disputing as to the proper place on the wall for a 
picture loved by both of them. The old Scotch servant, standing upon 
the ladder, was useless, but interested in the discussion, while the two 
argued about the momentous matter. William was chivalrous, and 
Mary was possibly weary, but certainly she did not yield, until the 
brother paused and the contest was ended without convincing him. 
The servant was directed to hang the picture as Mary desired, but he 
knew young William, and that his power of argument was unexhausted. 
Possibly he knew, also, that William was right. At any rate, he went 
across the room and drove a nail in the place William had suggested. 
When questioned as to his reason for this course of action, he said: 
"Awell, miss, that will do to hang the picture on when ye'll have to come 
round to Master Willie's opeenion." 

The fact is that the spirit of human progress has heard with no little 
interest the contention which William Ewart Gladstone has urged, and 
the argument which he has used against what is perhaps least objection- 
ably characterized as fear, ignorance and political bigotry. He has 
seemed to be the Great Defeated, and he certainly closed his life, after 
England's voice had joined in the chorus of praise for his earlier achieve- 
ments, with the great desire of his heart unaccomplished in the form 
of legislation. This spirit of progress has been patient and yet far-see- 
ing. After Toryism has hung its picture as it pleased, there has been a 
nail hammered into the opposite wall, and when Conservatism objects, 
the spirit of progress may say, with the old Scotch servant: "Awell, that 

368 



AT EVENTIDE. 369 

will do to hang the picture on when ye'll have to come round to Master 
Willie's opeenion." 

The moral influence of such a man as Air. Gladstone rose far above 
any anticipation his youth suggested, in the range and quality of its 
achievements. In November, 1844, Lord Malmesbury wrote in his 
journal: 

"November 7th: Dined with the Cannings and met Mr. Gladstone and 
Mr. Phillimore. ' We were curious to see the former, as he is a man 
who is much spoken of as one who will come to the front. We were dis- 
appointed at his appearance, which is that of a Roman Catholic ecclesiastic, 
but he is very agreeable." 

The priesthood of such a spirit has been more than any church could 
hold or any condition of politics could control. His effect upon public 
morals, as these were to be performed by a nobler Christian ministry, 
has been immeasurable. He himself said: 

"It was, I think, about the year 1835, that I first met the Rev. Sydney 
Smith, at the house of Mr. Hallam. In conversation after dinner he said 
to me, with the double charm of humor and good humor, 'The improvement 
of the clergy in my time has been astonishing. Whenever you meet a clergy- 
man of my age, you may be quite sure he is a bad clergyman.' " 

No man has done more to create and re-create the clergy of Anglo- 
Saxon Christendom than has Gladstone. A soul with less glorious light 
shining out from its windows, and undertaking such tasks as he did in 
Ireland and in England, with rough peasants and useless ecclesiastics, 
would have seemed ludicrously incompetent. It was his moral strength 
which confounded his foes. The Ireland he attempted to deal with 
would have offered a complete resistance to merely intellectual power. 

Sidney Smith was humorous and accurate as to the spirit of things 
when he described "those Irish Protestants whose shutters are bullet- 
proof; whose dinner-table is regularly spread out with knife, fork, and 
cocked pistol, salt-cellar and powder flask; who sleep in sheet-iron 
night-caps; who have fought so often liefore their scullery-door, and 
defended the parlor passage as bravely as Leonidas defended the pass of 

Thermopylae." 
24 



370 GLADSTONE: A BIOGRAPHICAL STUDY. 

If ever this Ireland has been made reasonable, it has been by a man 
who, horrifying Protestantism on the one hand by his insistence that 
Catholics should be fairly treated, and making Catholics indignant, on 
the other hand, by his searching criticism of the Vatican, could splen- 
didly fling out over all the discussion, the illumination of a moral genius. 
This spiritual element abided Hke a twilight from another world, and in 
it no man could seriously deny the sovereignty of celestial elements. 

That Mr. Gladstone was boundlessly charitable, and therefore strin- 
gently economical in the expenditures of himself and his family, is 
attested by thousands of causes he relieved, once even going so far as 
to sell a portion of his library, and cease gathering rare specimens of 
old china. That Mr. Gladstone exercised the height of an energetic ora- 
tory and thus controlled men who were opposed to him in political 
opinion, is instanced a hundred times by his Parliamentary achieve- 
ments. That an intellectual splendor, gorgeous if never dry, diffused 
itself by the processes of reflection and refraction in countless streams 
of fascinating influence, is demonstrated in review articles, almost with- 
out number, in orations which have already taken their place with the 
eloquent utterances of Burke and Chatham, and in discussions of liter- 
ary problems as comprehensive and keen as any written in his time. But 
all of these are greater by the fact that they were associated with and 
partly derived from a spiritual energy, the like of which has not mani- 
fested itself in another personality in our century. Mr. O'Connor Power 
furnishes us with a single incident of its influence. He says: 

"The division lobby is often one of the most interesting sights of the 
House of Commons. There are huddled together for a brief space all the 
strange and varied personalities of the House. Even in the lobby, however, 
the great personality of Mr. Gladstone stands out. It is his usual custom 
to rush to one of the writing tables, and, after his fashion^ on which the 
grand symmetry and orderliness of his great life have been planned and 
relentlessly pursued, he will not wholly lose even the brief space of time 
which is there expended. Accordingly he is to be seen writing away for dear 
life — sometimes holding the blotting-pad on his knees when he goes back 
to the House, and often calmly pursuing his work amid the shouts of hatred 
or triumph around him. 

"But on Tuesday night, for a moment, he allowed the natural man 



AT EVENTIDE. 371 

to conquer. Selecting a seat in a quiet corner, he fell into a brief, hurried^ 
but profound slumber, and was lost to the world of teeming and shouting 
life around him. The pallid look on the face told of the fatigue of the day, 
but the splendid mouth, firm set, was there^ — with that look of unalterable 
determination which conquers all things. It was a beautiful and impressive 
picture, and, by a quick and electric communicativeness, all its pathos and 
splendor and historic significance were gathered by the crowd. The usual 
noise of the lobby was stilled. Silently, reverently, members paused for a 
moment as they went by, whispered a comment in low accents, and passed 
on with hearts stirred silently, but profoundly, to reverence, awe, love." 

As he came tow^ard the end of his life, this moral power enabled him 
to clearly understand, as he could not understand in earlier days, the 
moral importance of such an experiment as our own in self-govern- 
ment. Dry as the subject might appear, the moral powder shone over 
it all. In the autumn of 1889, in a speech delivered at the opening of 
new reading and recreation rooms at Saltney, Gladstone indicates how 
much he had learned from America. He said: 

"My last recommendation to the student is one I have been in the 
habit of making for the last fifty years, because I then adopted the senti- 
ments upon which it is founded, and I now make it therefore with greater 
confidence after the lapse of fifty years. That recommendation is, to those 
who are able to carry it out, to study the history of the American Revolution. 
That is an extraordinary history. It is highly honorable to those who 
brought that revolution about ; but also honorable in no insignificant degree 
to this country, because it was by this country that the seeds of freedom were 
sown in America, because it was by imitating this country that America 
acquired the habits of freedom, and the capacity for more freedom. In this 
country we have happily had to a great extent, and I hope we shall have it 
still more, what is called local self-government — not merely one govern- 
ment at a certain point, composed of parties and exerting a vast power over 
their fellow-citizens, but a system under which the duties of government 
are distributed according to the capacities of the different divisions of the 
country, and the different classes of the people who perform them, in such 
a way that government should be practiced, not only in the metropolis, but 
in every country, in every borough, over every district, and in every parish. 
And that has tended to bring home to the mind of every father of a family, 
a sense of the public duty which he is called upon to perform. That has 
been the secret of the strength of America. The colonial system in which 
America was reared was in the main a free colonial system. You had in 



372 GLADSTONE: A BIOGRAPHICAL STUDY. 

America these two things combined: the love of freedom and respect for 
law, and a desire for the maintenance of order; and where you find these 
two things combined, love of freedom together with respect for law, and 
the desire for order, you have the elements of national excellence and 
national greatness." 

At the Victoria Art Gallery, in Dundee, he indulged in quite dif- 
ferent considerations, which, however, have been equally impressive to 
him. He said: 

"Beauty is an element of immense pecuniary value. The traditional 
cultivation of taste and production of beauty in industrial objects, is better 
known in Italy, and very well known in France. We may still be some 
steps behind in many departments in that respect, but there is not a doubt 
that in the enormous commerce of France, the beauty of the objects pro- 
duced counts from year to year for a great many millions sterling, and 
those millions sterling would fade into thin air, were the appreciation of 
beauty and the power of producing beautiful objects to be taken away, 
which, happily, it hardly can from such a people. It is an element of im- 
mense commercial value. Let us look abroad — let us take our lessons from 
nature, for, after all, we cannot go to a better source, or as good a source, 
as to the works of God. The Almighty has provided this earth with the 
beautiful, and has made the beauty of the land in which we are appointed 
to be born, and in which we live, an important instrument in stirring up in 
us and for confirming in us that devoted attachment to our country, whidh, 
I hope — under the name of patriotism or whatever other name — which, I 
. believe, always has been a pointed characteristic of individuals, and which, 
I trust, always will be a marked and pointed characteristic of those who will 
succeed them in following generations. The Almighty has given us a lesson 
in this respect in making His works beautiful, showing that He suggests 
to us to make our works beautiful, humbly and reverently, but yet believing 
that if in every department of life we are following that example He will 
regard it with favor, and crown it with His blessing." 

What he said of Bright when that life closed, may be said in a still 
higher way, of himself: 

"Thus it has come about that he is entitled to a higher eulogy than is 
due to success. Of mere success, indeed, he was a conspicuous example. 
In intellect he might claim a most distinguished place. But his character 
lies deeper than intellect, deeper than eloquence, deeper than anything that 



AT EVENTIDE. 373 

can be described or that can be seen upon the surface. The supreme eulogy 
that is his due is that he elevated political life to the highest point — to a 
loftier standard than it has ever reached. He has bequeathed to his country 
a character that cannot only be made a subject for admiration and gratitude, 
but — and I do not exaggerate when I say it — that can become an object of 
reverential contemplation." 

Out from the narrowing atmosphere of his individuality he looked, 
and gave that atmosphere every wind of heaven, as he opened great sub- 
jects under the light of this moral faculty. No doubt he was deeply 
disappointed in the attitude of the Irish people toward himself at various 
times, and toward the cause to which he gave the best and truest devo- 
tion of his life. More heroically than in any diffculty with English 
opinion, did Gladstone pursue his path with the unfortunate divisions, 
and oftentimes unrelenting criticism of the Irish people themselves. The 
present waiter remembers hearing him. after he had read Mr. Barry 
O'Brien's article on "Irish Wrongs and English Remedies," rehearse the 
story there told, and every word of Gladstone's indicated that his faith 
in humanity had endured much, but that it had triumphed over all. He 
felt that he had the right to the confidence and loyalty of the Irish 
people. It was a well-known saying of a great political philosopher 
that his achievement in 1869, his carrying through Parliament his 
measure of disestablishment, marked for English legislation the "only 
complete measure of justice passed for Ireland since Catholic emancipa- 
tion." But it was not to be wondered at that Ireland distrusted Eng- 
land's disposition and ability to do anything to remedy wrongs which 
had been visited upon her, and which had produced chronic irritation. 
Englishmen, on the other hand, saw how nearly impossible it was to 
conciliate a people who believed that they had suffered centuries of 
humiliation and outrage, with now and then a year or so of kindness 
and an act of brotherly love. It had all been described in the phrase 
which was applied to English rule in Ireland — "an alternation of kicks 
and kindness, kicks freely given and kindness grudgingly bestowed" — 
and a phrase like this has a marvelous power for traveling from cottage 
to cottage in a land like Ireland. In Gladstone's time ignorant Catho- 
lics had been kept ignorant, because they would not conform to the 



374 GLADSTONE: A BIOGRAPHICAL STUDY. 

stated religion; he had seen that poHcy abandoned. From the eight- 
eenth century charter schools, which existed only to make Protestants 
out of Catholics, drew their financial support h'om Parliament at the 
very time that Parliament declined to give a penny for the support of 
schools which would have reached the vast majority of the population; 
he had seen National schools open their doors to Catholic children, 
although they were superintended by a board in which Protestants ap- 
peared to Catholics as four to two, while the population indicated Catho- 
lics to Protestants as ten to two. To make this less pleasant to the 
Catholics, a Scotch Presbyterian clergyman had charge of it all. •? Their 
very school books made an effort to crush Irish patriotism, and Mr. 
O'Brien referred to the fact that the little Irish children were graciously 
permitted to sing the following words : 

'T thank the goodness and the grace 
That on my birth have smiled, 
And made me in these Christian days 
A happy English child." 

In i860 Gladstone had seen this happily transformed. The year 
1832 came and went, leaving Ireland and O'Connell utterly dissatisfied 
with Reform measures, and Bright himself declared, in i860, that the 
representation of Ireland in Parliament was virtually extinguished. 
Gladstone saw the Irish Reform Bill carried through in 1868, and the 
right to vote given in Irish boroughs to four-pound rate payers, and in 
1884 the English and Irish franchises were granted alike to both peoples. 
He had entered public life at a time when Ireland was asking for the 
removal of tithes to support a church in which Irishmen had no religious 
interest, and when they objected they were coerced by law with the aid 
of the military and poHce, who had come to collect the tithes. He had 
watched Sir Robert Peel's bill, in 1835. and the amendment of Lord 
John Russell, and he had seen the amendment overthrow the bill, and 
"the surplus revenuesof the established church appHed to the purposes 
of general education in Ireland." Up to 1837 pubHc opinion in Eng- 
land had given only such concession as was necessary to such schemes 
of coercion as its military force could apply. In spite of the Irish mem- 
bers, the Poor Law of 1838 had been carried, and it was put into opera- 



AT EVENTIDE. 375 

tion, as the Irish expected, by Scotch and English officers. The Irish 
Municipal Reform Act of 1840 disenfranchised the municipahties. Up 
to 1869, a Protestant State church had been maintained by England, 
while it contained 800,000 communicants, and 6,000,000 of other people 
were unaided. On this topic the Peel government of 1844 refused to 
grant an inquiry. In 1846 Lord John Russell admitted that it ought 
to be reformed, but that the church must not be disestablished. In 1853 
the same statesman announced his immovable opinion. Over and over 
the refusal was made. Disraeli's government in 1867 seemed as hrm 
as was Peel's government in 1844, refusing to grant an inquiry. Then 
it was that Gladstone said ''the time is not far distant when the Parlia- 
ment of England, which at the present undoubtedly has its hands full of 
most important business and engagements, will feel it its duty to look 
this question fairly and openly in the face." In 1869 Gladstone had seen 
disestablishment accomplished. In 1842 the Times said: 

"The tenant in Ireland has not the shadow of the character of a volun- 
tary contractor. It is with him to continue on the quarter of an acre which 
he occupies, or to starve. There is no other alternative. Rack rents may be 
misery, but ejectment is ruin. And yet in this state of things estates are 
farmed out to middlemen; and ejectments are then brought, because the 
unhappy tenant is behind with his rent, or, what is still worse, upon some 
trivial breach of covenant, merely because possession would be convenient 
to the person seeking it. What has been the result? Conspiracy, hatred, 
revenge, and murder — most cold-blooded, most brutal murder." 

And in 1850 it added: 

"Are we to stand by with folded arms (writing after the murder of a 
land agent in the North of Ireland), looking on in mute despair, as if these 
events were an inevitable necessity — an evil beyond the reach of law or 
public opinion? Surely we are not justified in adopting such a listless 
course. If the proprietors of the soil, in maintaining the rights which the 
law has given them, thus recklessly inflict misery without stint upon the 
helpless and unfortunate peasantry; if they say that without the perpetration 
of barbarities which w^ould disgrace a Turkish Pasha their rents cannot 
be collected ; if they are to bring in the attorney multiplying process, and 
with process multiplying costs and reducing the peasantry to hopeless 
slavery; and if they are thus to convert the country into a battlefield for the 
landlords and process-servers, and sheriffs and sheriff officers on the one 
side, and the furious peasantry and banded assassins on the other— then 



376 GLADSTONE: A BIOGRAPHICAL STUDY. 

we say it is the bounden duty of the Legislature to interfere, and either to 
enforce upon the present landlords the duties, while it maintains the rights, 
of property, or to create a new landed proprietary, whose intelligence and 
wealth will enable them to secure the peace of society, and thus lay the 
foundation of national prosperity." 

The year 1852 came with a new spirit, but it was not until Gladstone 
introduced his bill in 1870 that the cause of the Irish tenants made a 
substantial gain. It is true that in 1835, 1841 and 1852, Gladstone, 
having learned much from Thomas Drummond, kept close company 
with Lord Stanley, afterwards Earl of Derby, on this subject. Lord 
Palmerstop in vain tried to hold back the current of popular reform in 
1865, but Gladstone was alert and ready when the moment came and 
his bill achieved "compulsory compensation for improvements effected 
against the will of the landlord." Swift and sure was the progress from 
1870 up to this time, and now Mr. Gladstone stood with the phrase 
"Home Rule" quivering still upon his lips. 

Not intellectual energy, but moral strength alone, kept the tribune 
of an often recalcitrant people ever faithful to their cause, because, 
whether that people heard or forbore, he knew the cause itself was 
right. 



CHAPTER XLIV. 
CONCLUSION. 

For two years, according to Dr. Dobie, Mr, Gladstone's heart had 
been so weak as to be liable to fail suddenly; yet it was impossible for 
a man of Mr. Gladstone's out-of-door habits and immense vitality to 
come to the conclusion that he was a dying man. He took a trip to 
Scotland, and wandered over the heather, braving the Scotch rain and 
mist, and enjoying himself thoroughly with his friend George Armi- 
stead. 

Presently there developed an irritation in his face and head which 
robbed him of all sleep. An examination of the distinguished patient 
proved that the mucous membrane had swollen, and that no surgical 
operation would be likely to relieve Mr. Gladstone. He obeyed his 
physician and went to Cannes, where he had enjoyed many a pleasant 
day with distinguished foreigners in an atmosphere hitherto most bene- 
ficial to him. He was a little reheved, and, indeed, resumed his old 
habits of reading, which earlier he had been compelled to give up. He 
turned again to Sir Walter Scott, and read his works with the keenest 
satisfaction. All the new books, and many of the old ones on theology 
were packed up and sent to him, in the hope that his health might so 
far be restored as to enable him to write more as a student of religion. 
Now and then grave symptoms appeared, and the physicians and Mrs. 
Gladstone were much alarmed. 

It was thought best that he should return to England, and he passed 
a. few weeks at Bournemouth, where he endured extreme pain. Now his 
whole desire was to get back to Hawarden Castle. He had been kindly 
in his attentions to the lowliest of his tenants in the hours of their 
suffering and sorrow, and the atmosphere of the beloved shire, in which 
he had passed so much of his life, was itself a welcome to the dying 
man. 

ZT7 



378 GLADSTONE: A BIOGRAPHICAL STUDY. 

It was most touching, during the last days of Mr. Gladstone's life, 
to observe the extreme tenderness with which the whole population 
round about Hawarden Castle watched the progress of the case of "the 
old gentleman," as they called him. Representatives of families whom 
he had visited in times of darkness and distress, came up with their 
simple offering of profound love, and left the castle in tears when they 
found that their great and good friend was suffering intensely. 

The agony of the sick-room, prolonged through many weeks, was 
shared by the heart of England. Mr. Gladstone himself complained not. 
He said he had enjoyed so many thousand hours without pain that he 
was willing to accept this suffering from the hands of Providence. With 
all the depth of his religious emotion, and with the glow of his earnest 
faith, he walked bravely on into the valley of the shadow, and it was 
light everywhere about him. The old hymns which had so often been 
sung on Sunday nights in Hawarden Castle, were sung to him now. Lit- 
tle Dorothy Drew, the ever-loved grandchild, added her pathetic wail 
that her grandfather did not know her any more. Rev. Stephen Glad- 
stone, son of the passing statesman, read the Litany to him day after day. 
and as the accents of his voice, as he read, died away from the attention 
of the dying man, he feebly murmured, "Amen!" No word he could 
have pronounced would have conveyed the full meaning and character 
of Gladstone's career more truly. His whole life had been an amen to 
all the divine impulses and hopes embodied in the cross of Jesus Christ. 

The next morning all the world knew that William Ewart Gladstone 
had terminated his career, and from almost every nation under heaven 
came words of condolence and prayer. The Prince of Wales and his 
Royal Mother joined with the collier and cabdriver in the common 
grief. It is certain that the world felt that a mighty oak had fallen, 
and the forest looked strange without this colossal central figure. 

It was the plain intention of Mr. Gladstone that his body should be 
buried in Hawarden churchyard, where the body of his wife might also 
lie. From the time when Sir Stephen Glynne placed his daughter's 
hand in that of Gladstone, up to the moment of the latter's passing away 
from earth, when she sat kissing the hand which had never been lifted 
in an unworthy cause, he had hoped, and she had hoped that no event 



CONCLUSION. 379 

would ever separate them, not even death itself. But England thought 
that Westminster Abbey should be honored with the remains of Eng- 
land's greatest Commoner, and, after preparation had been made by 
which the body of Mrs. Gladstone might in time rest beside that of 
her husband, it was announced that the interment would be in West- 
minster Abbey. 

As the day of the funeral approached, London was most desirous of 
paying every tribute to the departed statesman. The Queen requested 
that all public celebrations of her seventy-ninth birthday be omitted, 
and there w^ere no public demonstrations on the event, for the body of 
the great man lay in state, and invitations to Cabinet dinners and recep- 
tions were recalled. 

Mr, Gladstone died at five o'clock on Thursday morning, May 19th, 
and on the next Tuesday, the body lay in the library at Hawarden Castle 
as beautiful and stately in death as in life. 

"Dead he lay among his books. 
The peace of God was in his looks." 

On the white silk couch the great statesman appeared sleeping, as if 
he were taking a rest before addressing a great audience upon some aca- 
demic occasion. There lay the body in evening dress, and over him hung 
the crimson silk robes of a doctor of civil law. By his side was the Ox- 
ford cap. The whole scene seemed to indicate that at any moment the 
man who was resting there on his side, would move the loosely inter- 
locked fingers lying upon his bosom, then he would rise, and, with that 
youth which death had brought back to the expressive and noble face, 
he would again thrill the audience waiting yonder for his words of in- 
spiration and wisdom. 

Meantime the House of Commons, on May 19, was crowded in every 
part, and Mr. A. J. Balfour, the first Lord of the Treasury and leader in 
the House of Commons, who had come to the House seriously suffer- 
ing from impaired health, arose, giving evidence in every attitude and 
in every tone of his voice, thiat he shared the public grief. The heads of 
all present were uncovered and Mr. Balfour proposed the address to 
the Oueen. 



38o GLADSTONE: A BIOGRAPHICAL STUDY. 

Sir William Vernon Harcourt, on the part of the Liberals, offered 
but a word, but it was sincere and sympathetic, and the House ad- 
journed. 

The next day the Parliament of England forgot whether Gladstone 
had been counted a Conservative or a Liberal. This unparalleled career 
shone so radiantly before those who had been his antagonists or his allies 
that rarely, if ever, did friend and foe unite so heartily in generous words 
of appreciation, as upon this occasion. Lord Salisbury, perhaps the 
ablest man whom Gladstone ever met in debate, a man who perfectly 
shared Gladstone's passion for scholarship and his enthusiastic devotion 
to the Church, pointed to Gladstone's career as that of a great Christian 
statesman. Mr. Arthur Balfour, who rose above the weakness of body 
from which he was evidently suffering, uttered a most just and eloquent 
eulogy, while John Dillon, carrying in his trembling voice the tears of 
Ireland, gave Ireland's best and truest friend cordial words of praise 
that will always be repeated; and Sir William Vernon Harcourt, who 
had labored with Gladstone, for the most part, in perfect harmony^ 
through the long trials of Liberahsm in the last quarter of a century, en- 
shrined the mighty dead in words as white and beautiful as was the hfe 
of his departed friend. Mr. Joseph Chamberlain also honored himself 
in offering memorable words of discriminating praise. 

The mortal part of the generous neighbor and kind friend, followed 
by the family, was borne by loving villagers and lifelong servants past 
the nooks of Hawarden Park mos-t often visited by the laborious states- 
man, and, having been placed in the village church, it received tender- 
est honor from the vast crowd of friends assembled there. 

Every effort was made to avoid the gathering of crowds upon the 
streets of London, and on Thursday morning at two o'clock the cata- 
falque was placed in Westminster Hall. Canon Wilberforce conducted 
an appropriate service. At each corner of the catafalque candles were 
lighted, and, in recognition that a chivalric crusader of Jesus Christ 
had come and passed that way, a large Armenian cross shone at the 
head. Daylight revealed thousands waiting in the street, anxious to 
view the remains. Dukes and peers jostled against costermongers and 
street cleaners; duchesses and wives of cabinet ministers vied with sew- 



CONCLUSION. 381 

ing women and shop girls to pay honor to a man of universal interests. 
Two thousand policemen were guiding the throng at three o'clock 
Thursday afternoon and seventy-five thousand people had then passed 
the coffin. Not alone was Sir William Vernon Harcourt unable to 
control his emotions as the calm face was seen and a celestial light 
radiated from the loved features. Hundreds were thrilled, as once by 
their music so now by the silence of those finely molded lips. He had 
found Life in death. 

Without military pomp and pageantry, this least spectacular cere- 
monial in England's history went on. It was the funeral of the truest 
Commoner. Not so many human beings had crowded into the space 
about the Hall, even on the occasion of the Queen's Diamond Jubilee. 
As Gladstone's whispered request had made it, it was "very simple;" as 
his character and career had made if also, it was very sublime. The 
Prince of Wales and the Duke of York were among the pall-bearers, 
but a quarter of a million of people thronged about to carry Gladstone 
in their hearts forever. Here and there flamed a bit of color or gleamed 
a strip of gold, but more impressive than heralds, bishops, princes, privy 
councilors, laced diplomats and the richly attired Speaker of the House 
of Commons bearing the mace on his shoulder, was the hushed and 
niournful throng who beheld the family, the Hawarden villagers and 
servants following the oaken coffin into the Valhalla of England. The 
great Abbey quivered with the grandly solemn music. Handel and 
Schubert, and Beethoven, Toplady, Watts, Newman and David the 
psalmist, had loaned their genius to the hour, and Canning and Pitt, 
Browning and Tennyson gave Gladstone august companionship. The 
future King of England extended his hand in sympathy to the widow 
who looked long and tenderly into the grave and then glanced upward 
to heaven. The dirge trembled into a whisper and the ceremony was 
done. 

As the latest echo of his favorite hymn, "Praise to the Holiest." 
resounding yet from the great choir of one hundred voices, was lost 
in the sorrowful tones of "The Dead March in Saul," which wept them- 
selves away amidst the arches of the majestic Abbey, old and life-long 
friends lingered, unwilling to quit the solemn scene. Around them 



382 GLADSTONE: A BIOGRAPHICAL STUDY. 

were memorials of those whom they, with Gladstone, had honored in 
life, and with these they were prone to remain. Upon their faces "the 
light that never was on sea or land" played fitfully through tears. Was 
Gladstone understood? They, at least, understood him, for to them, 
it was more clear than ever that he came into this world of ours, not the 
rondured and polished pearl his earher friends exhibited with acclaim, 
but rather entered he, at birth, an acorn of true Anglo-Saxon genesis, 
a veritable forest-monarch as yet enfolded and soon to unfold, a great 
tree whose multiform development was destined to have nothing of 
the hard and hopeless consistency of even the brightest of lifeless jewels, 
but rather that deeper and more vital consistency with its past which 
a V\fide-limbed and constantly growing king of the woods has with the 
brown nut rotting at the root of the many-branched oak. None who 
first entered into the secret of his genius had expected otherwise. An 
acorn, indeed, was this, of God's own creation and planting. To attain 
himself, as feebly foreseen, there must needs be unwelcome disturb- 
ances, tragic breakings of the bepraised and glossy shell by unpleasant 
urgings of something within, spring-time pangs and innumerable out- 
reachings. 

If Sir John Gladstone's son, William Ewart, had been only a per- 
fectly sphered ivory or beryl ball of conservatism, brilliant and suffi- 
ciently pure, the gift of heaven might have been kept securely and com- 
prehensively enough in a golden box, but no hope would have gone out 
in any proposed planting of such an unresponsive thing in our world's 
rich soil. But unfortunately for Toryism, and fortunately for Liberal- 
ism, he was a vital seed, not a cold gem, and, granted sun and rainfall, 
he could not and he did not remain ever an understandable, manageable, 
erubescent and dead item of human life's equation, but he was, instead, 
an ever wondrous, and perhaps to the dull-eyed, a too eager and elusive 
reality into whose career the life and hope of this planet ran for succor, 
and from whose being and action there went forth a revealment of God 
in the form of humanity. Three score and ten years had passed since 
Tennyson and he talked of the future they dreanied for Arthur Henry 
Hallam. Fifty years ago, death silenced Hallam and each of those years 



CONCLUSION. 383 

had given Gladstone an opportunity to embody in Himself the prophecy 
made of the other : 

"A life with civic action warm, 
A soul on highest mission sent, 
A potent voice of Parliament, 
A pillar steadfast in the storm." 

These w^ords of Tennyson came to many a heart on that May day 
when the silent crowd vanished from the Abbey. Yonder, by the side 
of Robert Browning and in frcnit of the Chaucer monument lay the poet 
who wrote the prefatory sonnet for Gladstone's heart-searching appeal 
for Montenegro; now and hither had been borne the remains of the 
statesman to be buried next to the dust of William Pitt and close to the 
bust of Lord B^aconsfield, which would still be the finest memorial 
of Gladstone's most brilliant rival, had it not been that Gladstone him- 
self made by his speech on the death of Beaconsfleld, as Sir Stafford 
Northcote said : "A more enduring monument than could be carved out 
of stone." 

It was not in keeping with the hour to compare the values of the 
public services of poet and statesman. Gladstone had already awarded 
the palm to Tennyson in lustrous and stately phrase, for he was suffi- 
ciently poetic to perceive that the poet is the true prophet of civilization. 
On the other hand, Tennyson himself spoke of Gladstone as the loftiest 
of English statesmen. The very method which Gladstone had often 
adopted and for the adoption of which he was most often and bitterly 
reproached— that of the Steersman, who seeking to reach a given point 
and finding two channels possible, one with a cataract ahead, the other 
more circuitous but with no fatal difficulty, chooses the bend as his 
course— this, his friend, the singer urged upon him, for the reason that 
Tennyson knew that a Gladstone, by endowment of genius, is account- 
able, not for himself alone, but also and more especially for himself as 
a leader and commander of men. Men said he yielded enough to his 
theory of eloquence and the orator. He said : 'Tt is an influence prin- 
cipally received from his audience (so to speak) in vapour, which he 
pours back upon them in a flood. The sympathy and concurrence of 
his time, is, with his own mind, joint parent of his work. He cannot 



384 GLADSTONE: A BIOGRAPHICAL STUDY. 

follow nor frame ideals; his choice is to be what his age will have him, 
what it requires in order to be moved by him or else not to be at all." 
But this must be balanced by the equally strong opinion of others that 
he was too attached to lofty ideals, and fought too far in front 'of his 
army. Bright called him a sunflower ever turning to the sun; but he 
was more, for he wooed all else sunward. 

The question of questions to be asked concerning a man like Glad- 
stone is not : Did he succeed in being popular? Did he reach the highest 
seat of power? Was he always of the opinion of his ancestors or of him- 
self on some yesterday? It is this rather, granted that he had much 
to renounce and to forget and that therefore, he must have had to 
move out of one set of opinions and methods and to enter into another, 
did he grow, with that healthfulness of soul and that soundness of con- 
science, which, always, in the process of his development, kept him true 
to his own personality and to the integrity of the laws of human thought 
by which other equally true minds necessarily came into alliance with 
him? It is competent, in short, to ask how far did his transforming 
intelligence normally transform the nation he most influenced, toward 
permanent grandeur and good fame? The answers to these questions, 
it is believed, will be increasingly favorable to the name and to the honor 
of Gladstone. From first to last, by force of a lively intelligence, pre- 
destined to love and to seek increasing light and hope, he was in process 
of evolution. So also, but less swiftly, was England. 

His inconsistencies are proof of the truth of Emerson's words: 
"Consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds." Times there were 
when any partial view could only say, as he was contemplated : 

"Things are in process still; the segment ends are these 

Within the plane upturned to-day. The perfect circles round but slow." 

The verdict of all times, however, will be returned as the world, ev^er 
advancing toward the goal he dreamed of, perceives the whole range 
and the entire import of the influelices he helped to create, to guard 
and to guide, and then with the names of Alfred and Hampden, Will- 
iam the Silent and Lincoln, will be found written the resplendent name 
of William Ewart Gladstone. 



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